v 

. ' 


AN  AD  D 11  E S S , 


sj;>  :;>j  V;;v v.f \ v:  ' 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


PHILOMATHESIAJ  SOCIETY, 


OE 


. 


MIDDLE  BURY  COLLEGE, 


August  20,  1850. 


By  Rev.  TRUMAN  M.  P 0 S T / 

#F  SAINT  LOUIS,  MISSOURI. 


[Published  by  f h e request  of  the  Society  .J 

' 

• ?.  it- ••  .•  ■ 

-**38?  -.A  A . * ‘a'\\ :,  i 

M*I>DLBBUKY  : 

JUSTUS  COBB,  PRINTER,  REGISTER  OFFICE. 


<V 


Genius 


AN  ADDRESS, 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 

PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY, 

# 

OF 

MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE, 


August  20,  1850, 


By  Rev.  TRUMAN  M.  POST, 

OF  SAINT  LOUIS,  MISSOURI. 


[Published  by  the  request  of  the  Society.] 


MIDDLEBURY  : 

JUSTUS  COBB,  PRINTER,  REGISTER  OFFICE. 

1850. 


» 


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GENIUS. 


Y 


In  addressing  a Literary  Association,  on  the  occasion  of  a Liter- 
ary Anniversary  connected  with  a Semi-Centennial  Academic  Ju- 
bilee, likely  to  embrace  almost  all  the  variety  of  schools,  moral,  po- 
litical, philosophical  and  ecclesiastic,  into  which  American  Society 
resolves  itself,  I have  thought  fit  to  select  a purely  literary  theme. 
I have  purposely  eschewed  questions  which  most  profoundly  and 
passionately  agitate  the  Age,  and  which  most  powerfully  attract  and 
usually  engage  my  own  mind ; and  have  sought  instead,  those  which 
may  bear  us  amid  serener  and  more  tranquil  walks,  and  amid  scene- 
ry of  softer  and  more  genial  influence,  if  of  less  brilliant  and  fiery 
splendor.  Themes  which  trumpet  up  passions  stimulated  to  habit- 
ual intensity  in  the  practical  battle  of  Life  and  Society — the  war 
cry  of  sects  and  schools  and  parties — which  startle  the  millions  as 
with  an  alarm  peal,  and  which  at  this  hour  convulse  church  and 
state  and  civilization  itself — fevering  through  empires, — and  like 
electric  bolts,  flashing  from  land  to  land,  shattering  systems  and 
springing  the  earthquake  of  revolution — such  themes,  with  their 
attractiveness  of  readier  power  over  interest  and  passion,  I forego 
at  the  behest  of  the  genius  of  the  occasion,  which  seems  to  me,  to 
be  rather  that  of  memory  and  kindly  sympathy  and  calm  specula- 
tion. I seek  topics  that  may  take  us  out  of  the  atmosphere  of  con- 
flict. I prefer  to  find  here,  for  the  time,  an  Elis, — a land  of  peace 
where  all  the  Hellenic  Brotherhood  may  meet  in  family  affection 
and  concord. 

As  from  various  sections  and  schools  and  parties,  with  the  dust 
and  soil  of  battle  on  our  mail,  we  gather  once  more  into  the  shades 
of  our  literary  Mother,  rejoicing  to  find  her,  though  venerable,  yet 
unlike  alas,  some  venerable  things,  still  youthful,  hopeful  and  beau- 


4 PIIILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 

tiful,  fain  would  we  establish  here  “ the  Truce  of  God,”  and  laying 
by  our  ordinary  armour,  consecrate  the  hours  to  common  memories, 
and  affections,  and  to  emotions  genial*  and  joyous,  though  shaded  and 
subdued  by  thoughts  that  come  unbidden,  but  not  unwelcome,  of 
those  once  of  our  number,  but  now  in  the  land  of  the  Departed. 
Our  task  for  the  time  is  rather  to  forget  the  years  that  have  passed 
since  we  looked  upon  each  other’s  faces,  and  taking  position  at  that 
stand-point  of  life  whence  our  paths  then  diverged,  to  knit  up  again 
the  ravelled  web  of  sympathy.  We  would  that  the  memories  of  the 
present  hour  should  be  all  kindly  and  gladsome,  and  be  able  to  re- 
peat themselves  in  Wordsworth’s  description  of  his  reunion  with 
Scott  on  the  banks  of  the  Yarrow — 

“ No  public  and  no  private  care 
j The  freeborn  soul  enthralling, 

| We  made  a day  of  happy  hours, 

j Our  happy  days  recalling. 

Brisk  youth  appeared,  the  morn  of  youth, 

With  freaks  of  graceful  folly — 

Life’s  temperate  noon,  her  sober  eve, 

Her  night  not  melancholy  ; 

Past,  present,  future,  all  appeared 

In  harmony  united,  * 

Like  guests  that  meet,  and  some  from  far. 

By  cordial  love  invited.” 

Thus  may  this  middle  pause  in  life’s  battle  possess  something  of 
the  tranquility  of  those  years  when  we  looked  out  upon  it  as  future, 
and  of  those  not  distant  shades  whence  we  shall  look  back  upon  it 
as  past. 

But  my  theme,  if  not  one  to  start  the  passions  of  party  with,  is 
one  not  without  interest  to  all  schools  and  parties.  It  is  the  prima- 
ry question  of  that  Power,  minister  of  success  and  victory  to  all 
but  belonging  exclusively  to  none,  in  each  colaborator  with  truth  in 
urging  on  the  great  movement  of  Humanity — the  Power  we  call 
Genius.  Let  no  one  be  alarmed  at  the  annunciation  of  my  theme. 
With  the  idea  that  in  many  minds  addicted  to  wonder  and  worship, 
starts  at  the  name  of  Genius,  we  shall  have  nothing  to  do.  Brilliant 
delirium,  beautiful  insanity,  Pythic  rage — all  that  order  we  dismiss. 
The  method  of  madness,  the  substance  of  shadow,  the  reason  of 
unreason  we  do  not  design  to  pursue  ; nor  are  we  ambitious  to  go  a 
ballooning  after  rainbows,  or  a rocketting  after  star-showers  ; nor 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS. 


5 


with  the  celestial  or  the  infernal,  but  with  minds  walking  this 
middle  world  shall  we  have  to  do  ; in  short,  with  the  human  quite, 
nothing  more. 

That  Genius  so  called,  be  it  real  or  only  imaginary,  that  simply 
blazes  and  detonates  athwart  the  vision  of  our  world  like  a bolt  of 
the  skies  and  often  to  our  view  as  random  and  ruinous — its  movement, 
however  dazzling  or  mighty,  as  barren  as  the  furrow  of  the  lightning 
in  the  Heavens  or  of  the  Hurricane  on  the  Deep — such  Genius  were 
a theme  certainly  little  appropriate  to  a Society  eminently  devoted 
by  its  very  name  to  self-culture,  and  to  emulation  rather  than 
worship.  Nor  is  it  a theme  so  attractive  to  my  own  mind.  I be- 
lieve that  in  the  economy  of  our  world  the  useful  is  the  most  beau- 
tiful ; the  mightiest,  the  most  normal  and  orderly.  The  stars  that 
shine  fixedly  on  in  their  high  walks  seem  to  me  lovelier  far  and 
stronger,  than  constellations  shooting  madly  from  their  spheres  ; and 
the  Sun-car  moving  in  regular  orbit  up  the  Heavens,  not  only  more 
beneficent,  but  sublimer  and  mightier  far,  than  when  driven  by 
mad  Phaeton  blazing  and  blasting  through  the  crackling  skies. 

Intellectual  power — not  miraculous  or  prodigious,  but  normal,  ex- 
plicable, cultivable,  and  imitable  though  it  may  be  at  an  awful  dis- 
tance, will  be  our  less  ambitious  theme ; the  wild  leven  of  the  skies 
subservient  to  human  good— subordinated  to  law  and  method  and 
intelligent  will,  and  the  minister  of  Truth  and  Civilization  to  the  na- 
tions. The  worship  of  abnormal  genius  has  been  most  pernicious  ; 
productive  of  false  ideas  and  false  practice  ; of  arrogant  confidence, 
indolent  pride,  or  of  paralyzing  despair.  The  more  salutary,  and 
as  we  believe,  the  more  truthful  view,  stimulates  the  energies  of  an 
active  and  emulative  hope.  Such  a view  will  at  present  engage  us. 
A Demosthenes  or  a Tully,  a Milton  or  Newton,  a Cuvier  a Pitt,  a 
Fox,  a Burke  and  the  like,  belonging  as  we  know  to  the  cultivable 
and  imitable  type  of  Genius,  present  an  order  of  intellectual 
power  high  enough  to  satisfy  our  ambition  of  analysis  or  of  imita- 
tion. And  we  doubt  not  all  the  mightiest  and  most  beneficent  names 
in  the  history  of  Thought  and  Art,  would  rank  in  the  same  class,  were 
the  biography  of  their  minds  laid  open  to  us.  Examples  of  this 
description — as  they  present  the  common  law  of  intellectual  achieve- 


6 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


ment  and  one  within  the  grasp  of  the  understanding  and  the  will, 
and  as  they  exhibit  the  common  methods  upon  which  society  must 
rely  for  advancement  in  Science  and  Literature — constitute  at  least 
a more  practical  subject  of  inquiry  than  exceptional  prodigies,  in- 
tellectual anomalies  and  monstrosities,  and  the  precocious  miracles, 
philologic,  aesthetic,  or  mathematic,  of  a Salford,  a Colburn,  a Mo- 
zart, or  a Crichton. 

Not  that  I am  disposed  to  deny  the  phenomenon  of  what  is  called 
Original  Genius.  I do  not  suppose  God  has  made  all  minds  alike, 
any  more  than  he  has  all  faces — He  has  undoubtedly  for  his  own 
ends,  gifted  some  originally  with  vast  and  peculiar  powers,  a living 
force,  an  intensity,  a sensibility  and  an  insight,  which  place  them 
almost  as  gods  among  their  fellows,  and  which  constitute,  by  Heav- 
en’s decree,  organic  and  original  forces  in  the  mechanism  of  Histo- 
ry. But  such  souls  it  is  the  Divine  prerogative  alone  to  create. 
Their  strength  and  beauty  are  a mystery  of  God.  Still  even  m re- 
gard to  souls  of  this  order,  so  far  removed  beyond  our  ambition 
and  our  knowledge,  and  almost  beyond  our  sympathy  and  our  love 
— so  high  and  awful  seem  they — even  their  intellectual  greatness 
admits,  I believe,  to  some  extent  of  analysis,  and  a comprehensi- 
ble and  practical  philosophy.  We  may  track  the  lightning  to  its 
high  home,  and  discover  the  secret  place  of  the  thunder,  and  de- 
tect their  laws  and  processes,  though  we  cannot  manufacture  or 
mimic  them.  And  often  I imagine,  we  shall  find  less  of  miracle  and 
mystery,  or  of  the  abnormal  and  preternatural'  than  we  are  wont 
to  suppose.  The  blade  of  Achilles  will  be  found  to  be  tempered  of 
earthly  steel,  the  bow  of  Ulysses  to  twang  with  the  terrestrial  yew, 
and  the  club  of  Alcides  to  be  knotted  and  gnarled  of  vulgar  hickory. 

Genius  then, — stimulated,  developed,  disciplined,  and  all  but 
created,  of  culture, — the  child  of  both  God  and  the  human  will — being 
our  elected  theme,  let  us  inquire  into  some  of  its  methods  and  pro- 
cesses, and  see  if  we  may  be  able  to  penetrate  at  all  the  mystery  of 
its  might.  But  here  we  premise,  that  even  within  our  limited  view 
(of  Genius)  our  survey  must  be  partial.  So  manifold  and  multiform 
are  the  aspects  and  elements  of  Genius,  as  to  baffle  any  attempt  at 
complete  analysis  of  even  our  restricted  definition,  on  an  occasion 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS. 


7 


j!  like  the  present.  The  larger  life  breathed  into  it  of  God,  may  work 
| all  its  processes  and  faculties  to  a peculiar  energy,  as  well  as  those  we 
design  especially  to  note.  Our  analysis  will  have  respect  to  a single 
element,  ultimate  and  primary  to  all  the  phenomena  of  genius,  but 
eminently  cultivable ; one  which  is  not  so  much  a separate  faculty 
or  process  of  the  mind,  as  the  tonic  quality  of  them  all,  giving  es- 
pecial intensity  to  the  entire  mental  action.  I refer  to  the  Atten- 
tion, or  power  of  quick  and  intense  and  steadfast  concentrative- 
ness  of  the  mind  on  a single  subject ; the  power  of  collected  and 
rapid  discharge  of  its  energies,  not  only  upon  some  single  theme, 
but  on  some  single  point  to  be  resolved  in  that  theme,  a power 
that  sustains  something  of  the  same  relation  to  intellectual,  as  tone 
does  to  muscular  force  ; that  nervous  energy  that  sometimes  changes 
the  feeble  organism  of  the  delicate  woman  to  iron,  and  , gives  the 
slight  form  of  the  emaciate  maniac  power  to  crush  the  giant. 

Newton  expressly  places  the  secret  of  his  intellectual  power  in 
this  quality  of  mind  ; “ If  in  any  thing,”  says  he,  u my  mind  sur- 
passes that  of  other  men,  it  is  in  the  faculty  of  attention.”  Cuvier 
informs  us  that  the  secret  of  his  vast  intellectual  accumulations, 
and  his  capacity  for  immense  and  vastly  multifarious  duties  pressing 
on  him  at  the  same  time,  was  in  the  same  thing — in  simply  attend- 
ing to  each  thing  in  its  time,  singly  and  exclusively. 

Napoleon  also  attributes  his  own  intellectual  superiority  to  his  fac- 
ulty of  intense  and  steadfast  concentrativeness  of  mind.  Indeed 
his  energetic  concentrativeness  in  the  field  of  thought,  was  the  pro- 
totype and  cause  of  his  terrible  energetic  concentrativeness  on  the 
field  of  battle,  which  wrought  ever  the  storm  of  war  beneath  his 
eye,  from  the  wind  to  the  whirlwind. 

Instances  in  kind  both  of  the  living  and  the  dead  could  be  mul- 
tiplied : but  these  suffice. 

These  are  certainly  types  of  what  may  eminently  be  termed  Ge- 
nius ; and  they  are  surely  witnesses  competent  to  affirm  of  them- 
selves. I believe  their  self-analysis  may  be  almost  universalized — 
that  it  is  true  not  only  of  them,  but  of  those  regarded  as  anomalies 
and  monsters — the  wonders  of  precocious  and  prodigious  talent  for 


8 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


art  or  science  or  letters — that  an  essential  distinctive  attribute  of 
all  genius — of  all  types  and  in  all  labors  analytic  or  imaginative, 
critical  or  constructive — whether  it  be  as  the  galvanic  battery  shred- 
ding and  dissecting  the  subtlest  textures  of  nature,  or  the  electric 
cloud,  battling  flash  after  flash  with  some  lone  and  lofty  crag,  or 
whether  it  be  as  the  sun  looking  upon  the  ice-mountain  till  it  melts, 
or  upon  the  sea  till  it  exhales  into  the  architecture  of  the  skies — 
that  an  essential  characteristic  of  Genius  in  all  these  phases  and 
functions,  is  the  power  of  intense  and  steadfast  direction,  and  of 
quick  and  collected  discharge.  Allowing  as  we  must  for  diversities 
and  inequalities  of  original  delicacy  and  force,  we  may  assign  as  a 
definition  descriptive  of  the  mood  and  quality,  if  not  the  absolute 
essence  of  Genius,  Mind  intensified,  or  mind  energetically, 
concentratively  and  sharply  attentiye.  This  definition  ap- 
plies to  genius  in  discovering,  resolving,  combining,  vivifying  or 
uttering  truth.  For  the  rapidity  and  clearness  of  its  intuitions,  the 
vividness  and  permanency  of  its  impressions,  or  its  faculty  of  analy- 
sis and  order,  of  combination  or  utterance,  here  is  the  hiding  of 
its  power — in  its  ability  promptly  to  converge  the  mental  rays  to  a 
fine  and  burning  focus  on  each  point,  in  each  aspect  and  relation, 
in  singleness  and  succession.  Without  this,  mere  original 
strength  or  energy  will  be  of  little  avail — nay  rather,  blind  and 
wasteful — like  the  powder  exploding  in  the  magazine  rather  than  im- 
pelling the  missile  toward  the  mark.  The  intellectual  blade  must  be 
brought  to  a keen  edge  that  it  may  cut,  and  to  a fine  point  that  it 
may  pierce,  and  it  must  too,  be  capable  of  nimble  use  in  the  prac- 
ticed hand,  or  however  ponderous,  it  will  still  be  as  inefficient  as  the 
sword  of  Michael  in  mortal  grasp. 

The  philosophy  of  this  relation  of  attention  to  intellectual  power, 
and  the  primal  principle  from  which  a logical  analysis  of  genius 
must  start,  are  found  in  the  fact  that  the  mind  is  not  properly  a 
Creator , but  only  a Seer — that  its  great  function  is  to  behold,  and 
that  in  the  combinations  of  wit,  or  fancy,  or  taste,  or  logic,  the  mind 
is  simply  a discerner,  not  an  originator  of  ideas  and  relations,  and 
is  a creator  only  in  selecting  and  regarding  certain  ideas  and  rela- 
tions, and  neglecting  others  ; that  no  act  of  the  will  can  call  up  the 


i 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS. 


9 


requisite  relation  or  idea,  but  they  must  be  waited  and  watched  for, 
till  the  laws  of  association  shall  purvey  them. 

The  mind  can  not  create  an  idea  more  than  it  can  create  worlds. 
God  alone  does  this. — God  that  made  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth, 
the  spiritual  universe  and  the  soul  of  man.  It  was  a beautiful 
thought  of  Plato  that  the  Archetypes  of  all  ideas  were  in  the  mind 
of  God  from  eternity ; and  a great  truth  lies  under  its  beauty.  Our 
chainworks  of  Imagination  or  of  Reasoning  even, — they  are  but  a 
series  of  which  each  new  link  is  neither  of  our  creating  nor  sum- 
moning, but  in  which  the  mind  grasps  fast  hold  of  the  last  one  in  the 
unfinished  chain,  and  holds  it  up  as  it  were  toward  Heaven, — as 
the  philosopher  presents  the  conductor  to  the  electric  cloud  waiting 
the  spark, — while  through  the  modes  of  action,  which  we  call  laws 
of  mind,  God  sends  forth  from  his  vast  arcana  another  link. 

God  has  established  in  the  mind  laws  of  association  or  suggestion, 
by  which  one  idea  calls  up  its  fellow  in  a certain  order,  and 
in  a rapid  and  infinite  succession,  each  one  thus  a link  in  an 
endless  series.  The  train  once  started  must  go  on  forever,  unless 
interrupted  by  the  suspension  of  intellectual  action,  or  the  ob- 
trusion of  some  new  object  of  thought  from  without.  The 
order  of  association  along  which  the  mind  is  borne,  and  of  the  re- 
lations by  which  ideas  are  bound  together,  is  at  first  determined  by 
the  attention  and  finally  becomes  stereotyped  by  habit,  and  may  at 
last  assume  the  fixedness  of  fate.  In  this  law  of  Endless  Succes- 
sion, according  to  orders  and  relations  previously  established  in  the 
mind,  and  bringing  past  us,  as  it  were,  the  Panorama  of  the  Uni- 
verse and  of  Eternity,  lie  vast  destinies,  intellectual  and  moral,  for 
the  soul  of  man.  Eternal  Doom  is  in  it.  Habits  of  association  es- 
tablished here, — as  they  determine  the  career  of  Genius  in  this  life, 
for  good  or  ill,  truth  or  falsehood, — so  they  are  its  window  of  infin- 
ite outlook  toward  the  unapproachable  Brightness  or  the  Eternal 
Night. 

By  this  law  of  infinite  succession  all  ideas  are  linked  together,  so 
that  as  God  is  one,  and  Truth  is  one,  all  ideas  may  be  said  in  a cer- 
tain sense  to  be  one.  God  throws  down  to  man  a thread  of  that 
vast  tissue  of  truth  that  shoots  its  filaments  through  the  Universe. 


10 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


I Man  is  steadfastly  to  hold  on  to  that  thread,  as  to  the  clue  that 
| warps  through  the  mighty  Unity. 

The  mind  has  but  to  open  its  eye  and  God  causes  the  vast  Panor- 
ama to  pass  before  it.  Ideas  and  relations,  modes  and  essences, 

| thoughts,  feelings,  and  intellectual  forms,  infinite  in  aspect  and 
number  and  combination,  come  trooping  by ; presenting  not  Or- 
der or  System,  or  Art  or  Science  or  Poetry  or  Philosophy,  but  the 
elements  and  material  of  them  all,  just  as  in  the  confusion  of  the 
outward  world.  The  great  cunning  of  Genius  amid  the  transit  of 
1 this  phantom  army  is  to  give  heed , to  select  and  arrest  the  hurrying 
| fugitives,  and  then  inspect  and  marshal  them  in  order,  whether  a- 
j mong  the  light  skirmishers  of  wit  and  fancy,  or  the  heavy  phalanx 

| of  Philosophy,  or  the  plumed  and  dashing  squadron  of  Poetry  or 

Eloquence.  In  other  words,  one  is  to  select  from  this  thronging 
| march  of  suggested  thoughts,  those  pertinent  to  the  special  object 
| he  has  in  view  at  the  time,  and  to  subject  them  to  the  examination 
and  process  demanded  by  that  object,  according  as  the  end  may  be, 
Logic  or  Poetry,  the  ascertainment  of  facts  or  enrichment  of  Fan- 
cy, the  faculty  of  Language  or  Philosophy.  And  be  it  the  Reason 
or  Imagination  or  Taste  or  the  moral  sentiment  that  rightfully  pre- 
! sides  over  the  hour,  the  special  end  must  be  for  the  time  absolute, 

I and  its  affinities  the  supreme  Law.  It  must  be  the  germ  of  crys- 

j talization,  the  archetype  of  form,  and  the  norm  of  organism,  applied 

I to  the  hurrying  and  chaotic  drift,  and  the  mould  into  which  the 

molten  lava  of  passion  is  to  run.  Amid  the  infinite  scenery  of  fugi- 
tive thought  he  must  attend  to  certain  ideas  of  a certain  class,  and 
no  other,  and  to  certain  aspects  and  relations  of  those  ideas,  and 
i follow  out  certain  suggestions  of  those  aspects  and  relations,  and  no 
j other.  For  illustration — place  the  Artist,  the  Archaeologist,  the  Ge- 
ologist, the  Botanist  and  the  Husbandman  in  view  of  the  same  land- 
! scape.  How  different  the  orders  of  thought  in  presence  of  the  com- 
mon object,  and  how  different  the  principles  of  eclecticism  and  clas- 
sification applied  to  the  ideal  phenomena  passing  before  the  mind, 
in  each  individual,  appropriate  to  his  special  end. 

First,  in  the  general  Landscape,  the  lines  of  environment  and  undu- 
lation, the  light,  shade,  colour,  form,  grouping  and  elements  of  natural 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  11 



beauty  or  sublimity,  attract  the  Artist.  Questions  of  structure  and 
stratification,  on  the  other  hand,  of  aqueous  or  igneous  formation  and 
j of  constituent  minerals  and  earths,  occupy  the  Geologist;  while  the 

Botanist,  again,  sees  only  its  vegetation  and  Flora,  and  the  Agricul- 

j 

I turist  has  suggested  to  him  only  questions  of  cultivableness,  produc- 

j tion  and  irrigation,  &c.  In  the  same  field  of  vision,  meantime,  the 

! Archaeologist  sees  starting  forth  only  the  historic  names  and  storied 

| lineages  connected  with  the  spot,  or  the  pageant  of  battle,  burial 

j or  bridal,  of  which  it  has  been  the  theatre.  All  fitly  have  different 

I ideas  of  that  landscape  and  yet  all  truthfnl.  So  of  any  single  ob- 

I ject  in  the  landscape.  The  ruined  castle  for  instance,  sends  the 

j minds  of  the  several  beholders  diversely  to  the  questions  of  the  or- 

i der  of  architecture  it  exhibits,  the  quarry  where  its  rock  was  hewn, 

I its  artistic  relations  to  a landscape  picture,  the  storms  of  battle  that 

| have  left  their  trace  on  its  fallen  walls,  or  the  scenes  of  pleasure, 

!j  or  tales  of  murder,  that  start  at  sight  of  its  mouldering  wainscot- 
I ing  and  mottled  mosaic. 

In  the  above  cases,  each  must  pursue  his  own  specific  aim  exclu- 
I sively  ; selecting,  rejecting,  classifying  and  combining  only  by  the 
j principle  of  associative  affinity  it  requires,  if  the  hour  is  to  achieve 

I a work  of  Genius.  So  in  the  ideal  and  outward  world  universally  ; 

i each  object  is  many-faced  ; the  one  aspect  fitting  your  proposed  aim, 

alone  you  are  to  contemplate.  Each  object  is  the  key  to  an  infin- 
| ite  number  of  apartments  of  thought ; one  only  you  are  to  enter. 

Each  throws  off  innumerable  sprangles  of  association,'  warping 
through  an  immeasurable  network : one  clue  alone  you  are  to  fol- 
low. Take  now  Genius  in  one  of  its  happiest  moods — acquisitive, 
analytic  or  creative — when  its  reason  seems  insight,  and  its  insight 
inspiration,  and  its  combination  and  architecture  rapid,  subtle,  ex- 
act, vast  and  gorgeous  like  a god’s,  and  its  memory  too,  seems  as 
quick  and  immortal. 

Mark  first  its  aspect  of  profound  and  strong  repose.  It  is  the  re- 
pose of  trance-like  attention — of  concentrated,  fascinated,  resolved 
gaze  upon  its  theme.  The  eye  of  the  mind  is  open  wide  ; intent, 
silent  aud  fixed  as  a star.  It  is  the  telescope  directed  to  the  rolling 
j sphere.  God  is  passing  in  the  glory  of  the  Material  and  the  Spir- 


PIIILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


12 

itual  Universe  before  that  mind — God  dwelling  above  and  behind  the 
unapproachable  Light,  but  His  train  falling  down  and  sweeping  the 
field  of  mortal  vision — enduring  laws  of  mind  His  ministers,  and 
shapes  intellectual  and  ideal,  a mighty  host,  His  Sabaoth. 

The  mind  is  now  to  unite  in  its  act  the  Seer  and  the  Prophet.  Its 
mission  for  the  hour  is  to  see  and  to  tell.  But  not  to  see  and  to  tell 
ally  more  than  the  eye  sees  all  the  images  which  light  builds  on 
the  optic  nerve  turned  toward  the  outward  world.  The  visible  Uni- 
verse pictures  itself  there,  but  thought  is  cognizant  of  only  a single 
point.  So  in  the  mighty  tide  that  sweeps  along,  the  mind  sees  on- 
I ly  the  One  Relation  and  One  Idea — the  ruling  type  for  the  hour, 
j Their  impress,  image  and  action  engage  it  everywhere.  The  mind 
• in  such  moods  seems  to  type  the  universe  with  its  own  dominant 
| thought.  Each  mote  in  the  vast  drift  seems  to  glow  and  live  with 
one  reflected  face.  All  things  are  interpenetrated  by  one  Arche- 
| typal  Relation — all  moulded  to  one  Archetypal  Form.  Under  the 
influence  of  this  entranced  concentrativeness,  the  process  of  sug- 
gestion is  stimulated  to  wonderful  energy.  The  succession  now  be 
comes  inconceivably  rapid.  Ideas  linked  by  the  magic  tie  of  Asso- 
ciation, start  up,  thick  and  rushing  as  the  light;  of  every  mein, 
shape  and  hue,  gloomy  or  gay ; solid  or  shadowy  forms,  permanent 
or  fugitive  relations,  essences  truthful  and  real,  or  “ of  such  stuff 
as  dreams  are  made  of,” — “ shapes  that  in  the  colors  of  the  rainbow 
flit  or  play  in  the  plighted  clouds.”  They  sweep  by  like  a storm,  or 
the  light-shotten  clouds  hastening  to  their  eternal  setting.  Mo- 
mently their  aspects  glimpse  on  you  and  vanish — 

,{  Brief  as  the  lightning  in  the  collied  night 
Which,  ere  a man  hath  power  to  say,  Behold  ! 

| The  jaws  of  darkness  do  devour  it  up.” 

There  needs  now  a gift  to  stereotype  the  wavy  flash  of  Niagara — 

; to  daguerreotype  the  lightning — to  arrest  and  dissect  the  sun  beam. 

Quick,  intent,  instant  now,  must  be  Genius.  It  now  needs  to  be  j 

the  Orpheus  to  charm  back  the  bright  phantoms  from  the  verge  of 

| perpetual  night,  it  needs  to  be  the  Alcides  to  wrestle  with  Death  for 

| the  beautiful. 

Processes  of  selection,  analysis,  comparison  and  combination, 
quick,  subtle  and  strong  as  the  action  of  the  imponderable  agents 


REV.  MR.  POST  S ADDRESS 


13 


of  Nature — Light,  Heat  and  Electricity — are  now  requisite  to  meet 
the  exigencies  of  the  moment.  Amid  that  shadowy  rush  of  ideas 
you  need  now  to  grasp  some  one  appropriate  to  your  present  pur- 
pose, and  hold  it  as  with  a clutch  of  steel  in  the  focus  of  the  Intel- 
tellectual  rays,  till  it  glows,  blazes  and  makes  full  evolution  of  itself 
and  till  relation  after  relation  flashes  out,  and  faces  of  Truth  and 
Beauty  look  forth  from  its  shadowiness. 

Arrest  then  these  fugitive  and  phantom-shapes  as  they  pass , for 
a long  future,  perhaps  to  come  no  more.  That  spectral  army  have 
passed  millions  of  our  race  before,  but  have  gone  unquestioned  and 
unshrived  on  to  night.  Not  so  be  it  now.  That  questionable 
shape — bright  or  dark — quick,  stay  it  ere  it  vanish.  Speak  to  it. 
Demand  its  secret.  Confine  it  to  tell  you  why  thus  it  walks  the 
twilight  of  your  mind,  and  what  its  mission  and  message  to  man. 

Now  in  all  the  above  process — the  “ Orpheus  and  Alcides” — 
the  electric  solvent  or  the  magic  organizer — the  “ clutch  of  steel,” 
and  the  focal  power — the  necromantic  inquest  is  merely  the  quick, 
intent,  steadfast  attention , which,  as  it  starts  this  tumultuous  flood 
of  ideas,  so  nerves  also  each  faculty  of  the  mind  to  its  mightiest 
tone,  and  endues  it  with  power  to  fix  the  chaotic  drift,  and  throw 
out  upon  it  lines  of  order  and  beauty  and  life. 

Ideas  thus  arrested  and  resolved  under  the  analysis  of  an  intense 
attention,  and  made  to  develope  their  affinities  and  relations,  are  now 
under  the  same  influence  recombined,  and  grouped  ; whether  by  es- 
sential and  permanent  relations,  as  of  cause  and  effect,  and  of  in- 
trinsic and  enduring  correspondency  ; or  by  the  lighter  ones  of  su- 
perficial or  accidental  affinities,  or  mere  juxtaposition,  or  of  flitting, 
unique  or  capricious  analogies.  And  thus  recombined  and  grouped 
they  are  laid  by  in  magazine , as  the  ready  furniture  of  the  mind 
future — whether  of  knowledge  or  embellishment,  illustration  or  ar- 
gument— or  as  the  ideal  archetypes  of  Art,  or  the  organic  general- 
izations of  Philosophy.  They  are  laid  by  to  come  forth,  when  the 
hour  needs,  in  groups,  chainworks  and  masses, — the  glittering 
wreath  of  fancy,  the  playful  summer  flash  of  wit,  the  hot  thick 
shafts  of  passion,  the  linked  bolts  of  logic,  or  the  collected  storms, 
massing  all  in  one, — of  Poetry  or  Oratory.  Thus  wrought,  they 


14 


PIIILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


are  committed  over  to  the  memory,  which  under  the  same  intense 
concentrated  action  of  the  mind,  becomes  not  so  much  recollection, 
as  an  ever  quick  and  living  consciousness.  Indeed  they  seem  not 
so  much  remembered,  as  spontaneously  kindling  up  when  the  mind 
is  highly  excited,  like  fireworks  attached  to  the  mind,  ignited  and 
discharged  by  its  glow ; to  which  glow  the  mind  is  wrought,  when 
a fitting  theme  is  presented,  by  the  same  attention  that  first  at- 
tached these  combustible  projectiles  to  it. 

Thus  it  is  Attention  to  the  great  end,  and  the  specific  relation, 
and  the  precise  point,  following  it  out  through  division  and  subdivi- 
sion, and  through  all  complexities  of  the  web  work  of  association — 
it  is  such  an  Attention,  that  is  the  Genius  of  Analysis  and  Order 
and  Generalization,  and  of  Artistic  and  Poetic  combination  and 
creation.  It  is  the  same  faculty  or  act  of  the  mind,  which  daguer- 
reotypes and  stereotypes  the  fugitive  ideas  upon  the  mind,  with  a 
vividness  imperishable  as  the  mind  itself.  It  is  this,  too,  laying  them 
by  in  store,  classified,  grouped  and  compacted,  and  when  the  hour 
for  their  use  comes,  throwing  an  intense  irradiation  in  to  the  rich 
and  ready  magazine — it  is  this  that  characterizes  and  well-nigh  cre- 
ates the  Genius  of  Utterance  or  Eloquence. 

I believe  this  description  opens  the  secret  Laboratory  of  Genius. 
All  is  quite  human,  and  like  most  of  the  vast  and  sublime  operations 
of  nature — the  result  of  great  simplicity  of  cause,  or  at  least 
of  process. 

But  the  effect  astounds  men  like  the  Epiphany  of  a God ; 
and  Genins  seems  to  them  to  burst  upon  the  world  like  the  Olympi- 
an Jove,  with  his  emblazonry  of  stars  and  storms,  and  with  bolts 
forged  by  Titanic  hands,  in  awful  and  mysterious  gloom.  But 
wdiatever  or  however  mysterious  the  diversities  of  original  power, 
the  method  of  Genius  is  single ; and  it  is  intelligible  and  cultivable. 
Without  the  method,  the  power  is  barren,  with  it,  ordinary  power 
may  rise  to  the  mightiness  of  Genius. 

It  would  perhaps  take  from  our  wonder  and  worship,  but  surely 
would  be  more  useful  far,  could  we  follow  out  the  process  described 
above,  in  the  case  of  a Swift,  Garrick  or  Sheridan,  patiently  and 
silently  concocting  the  wit  which  was  subsequently  to  burst  forth 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  15 

— — 

like  inspiration  before  delighted  clubs,  or  glitter  like  an  electric 
storm  over  dazzeled  Parliament ; or  could  we  pursue  the  analysis 
in  case  of  a Burke,  a Chatham,  a Henry  or  Ames,  a Tully,  a De- 
! mosthenes,  long  and  toilsomely  wreathing  the  fiery  and  gorgeous 
logic,  that  at  last  seemed  to  leap  at  once  like  the  “live  thunder” 
j over  astonished  realms.  Through  the  entire  process,  the  great  effort 
in  each  case,  was  to  keep  steadfast,  and  intent  the  eye  of  the  mind, 

| while  God  and  nature,  or  rather  God  through  nature,  showed  them 
wondrous  things.  Laws  that  -work  in  all  minds  to  some  extent,  uni- 
versally and  everlastingly,  independent  of  the  will  as  the  heaving  | 
of  the  lungs  or  beating  of  the  heart,  did  the  rest.  The  prodigie  s 
of  Genius  are  achieved  in  the  intellectual  as  in  the  material  world,  j 
by  observing  the  method  of  nature,  disembarrasing  her  ministry 
and  giving  intelligent  and  concentrative  direction  to  her  blind  force. 

It  will  illustrate  our  position  to  look  at  some  of  those  forms  of 
intellectual  power  which  in  their  unusual  manifestation,  we  ascribe 
| to  Genius.  We  wonder  at  the  Faculty  of  Language  in  Genius. 

Its  speech  is  not  like  other  men’s.  It  has  the  raciness  of  intimate 
and  analytic  commerce  with  its  object,  and  it  sparkles  with  the  ori- 
: ginality  of  direct  and  independent  looking  at  things.  You  recog- 

nize in  it  the  life  of  direct  contact  with  nature,  and  a suggestive- 
|l  ness  rich  as  a strain  of  old  music.  Its  diction  is  a gallery  of  art, 
where  the  vividness  of  picture  blends  with  the  individuality  and 
| relief  of  statuary,  and  the  charm  of  music  floats  through  all.  The 

! words  seem  pictures,  and  the  figures  statues,  so  adjusted  and  dis- 

tributed that  you  can  no  more  transpose  them  than  you  could  the 
marble  of  a Grecian  temple,  and  can  no  more  replace  a lost  or  mu- 
I tilated  member  than  you  could  restore  an  arm  of  the  Herculean 

| Torso,  or  a lip  of  the  Medicean  Venus. 

The  words  of  Genius  are  breathing  thoughts,  and  its  thoughts 
again,  ever  lighten  into  burning  words  : and  they  are  an  infinite  ar- 
j my  of  the  strong  and  beautiful ; and  they  come  quick  ministers  of 

j it  in  its  hour  of  need.  But  the  magician  that  prepared  and  evoked 

jj  this  host,  is  the  Attention.  This  gives  them  their  precision  and 

ji  delicacy,  and  their  copiousness  and  force.  This  makes  them  leap 

} forth  at  its  call,  keen,  massive,  nimble  and  innumerable,  like  MiL 


i ton’s  “ millions  of  flaming  swords,”  drawn  from  the  thighs  of  mighty 
cherubim.  This  it  is  that  freights  words  with  thought,  and  quickens 
speech  with  a living  soul,  and  makes  it  as  quick  and  delicate  and 
massive  as  the  iron-clad  steam-power,  that  now  cuts  the  eye  of  the 
needle,  now  spins  the  gossamer  filament,  and  now  crushes  the  gran- 
ite, or  moulds  the  steel,  or  wrestles  with  the  tempest  on  the  stormy 
main. 

This  it  is  that  incarnates  the  abstract  and  translates  vague  gen- 
eralities into  sharply  defined,  statuesque  individualizations.  Dead 
terms  become  living,  charged,  electric.  The  word  War,  for  in- 
stance, which  to  the  superficial  view,  starts  only  the  glittering  mar- 
tial pageant,  or  the  rapture  of  battle,  or  the  pomp  of  victory — to 
the  mind  turning  its  converging  lens  upon  it,  what  a Hell  yawns  in 
its  three  letters.  So  “ Art,”  which  to  the  common  mind  walks  a 
vague  and  cold  abstraction — how  to  analytic  and  meditative  thought 
it  trains  along  a host  of  the  historic  and  ideal  beautiful.  And 
“ Religion,”  again,  to  the  unheeding  ear  a sound  so  dead,  and  of- 
ten so  repulsive, — to  the  intent  and  familiar  reflection,  what  an  elo- 
quence of  sweet  charities  and  holy  affections,  what  a scenery  of  aw- 
ful Love  and  Beauty,  what  an  exceeding  and  unutterable  weight  of 
glory  there  is  in  it ! 

We  are  often  referred  to  sudden  and  brilliant  displays  of  elo-  i| 
quence  as  mere  spontaneous  outbursts  of  Genius, — as  not  only  im- 
provised, but  independent  and  defiant  of  culture — as  the  product  of 
the  passion  and  conscious  exigency  of  the  hour.  But  the  words 
j which  seem  to  rally  round  the  orator  in  his  hour  of  need  like  an  ar- 
my at  a trumpet  call,  come,  thus,  with  their  perfect  fitness,  and 
delicate  and  powerful  expressiveness,  only  through  previous  attentive 
thought  directed  to  them.  They  come  not  like  Deucalion’s  army 
from  the  earth — they  are  children  of  culture.  The  passion  and  ex- 
citement of  the  occasion  cannot  create  words — cannot  originate  a 
knowledge  of  our  vernacular,  any  more  than  they  can  a knowledge 
of  Greek.  They  no  more  furnish  a solution  of  Genius’  gift  of  speech, 
than  the  being  “ full  of  new  wine,”  if  truly  charged  on  the  Apos- 
tles, could  explain  their  speaking  with  tongues  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost. Passion  may  kindle  anew  old  impressions  and  fading  know- 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS. 


17 


ledge — may  lighten  the  dim  chirograph  of  past  thought  and  feeling 
in  the  soul.  But  the  thought  and  feeling  will  be  of  little  avail  un- 
less previously  knit  by  association — which  passion  may  quicken — 
to  words.  The  resurrection  of  the  spiritual  element  will  be  of  little 
benefit  unless  the  linguistic  body  have  been  prepared  for  it.  The 
Orator  needs  previous  commerce  with  words  representing  his  topic 
in  its  various  aspects  and  relations.  He  needs  first  to  have  studied 
the  dialect  of  his  theme , and  then,  when  the  hour  of  utterance  comes 
to  cast  the  heat  and  light  of  a focal  attention  upon  his  theme,  to 
quicken  thereby  not  only  its  logical  and  aesthetic,  but  its  rhetorical 
and  verbal  associations.  Thus  it  is  the  steadfast  concentrative  vi- 
sion of  the  mind  that  makes  nature  and  history  and  speech — things 
and  their  linguistic  representatives — animate  and  eloquent ; as  it  is 
this  also  that  opens  the  ear  of  Genius  to  their  richer  and  loftier  di- 
alect in  the  hour  of  need. 

In  like  manner,  Novelty  and  Originality  and  Raciness  that  mark 
Genius,  spring  also  in  a great  measure  from  the  same  cause.  So 
multiform  and  billion-faced  is  Truth  and  Reality,  that  he  that  looks 
directly  and  intently  at  them,  will,  in  thinking  his  own  thought,  and 
uttering  his  own  speech,  hardly  fail  to  be  fresh  and  vigorous  in  dic- 
tion, and  to  attract  with  novel  views  of  even  familiar  objects  ; while 
the  mind  that  looks  not  at  things  themselves,  but  indolently  and 
servilely  receives  mere  terms  and  dogmas  of  other  minds,  can  only 
weary  with  stale  hum-drum  and  droning  echo. 

We  wonder  again  at  Genius  for  its  quick,  delicate  and  riving 
Analysis , applying  itself  as  the  flame  of  the  compound  Blow-pipe 
to  every  object.  But  it  is  simply  the  mind  holding  the  object  in  the 
blaze  of  its  own  gaze,  till  the  object  resolves  itself ; or  at  least  is 
resolved  by  the  same  power  that  decomposes  the  substance  held  be- 
tween the  poles  of  the  galvanic  circle.  Indeed,  the  mind  itself  may 
be  termed  the  Universal  Solvent,  requiring  only  that  its  theme  be 
held  immersed  in  its  thought  till  nature  effects  the  resolution. 


Again  we  wonder  at  Genius  classifying.  Order  seems  its  in- 
stinct. Armed  with  this  faculty  of  method , such  minds  as  Aris- 
totle’s, Bacon’s  and  Newton’s,  seem  to  move  through  the  domain  of 
Science  as  Architects  almost  Divine.  But  they  did  not  create 


/ 


18 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


method  in  Nature  and  Truth.  They  only  saw  it.  God  put  it  there 
before.  Theirs  was  only  the  steadfast  grasp  and  intent  vision,  while 
order  developed  itself;  or  looking  beyond  laws  of  mind  to  the  Leg-  i 
islator,  we  should  perhaps  rather  say,  silent  and  intent  they  looked 
out  on  Chaos,  while  God  said  “ Let  there  be  Light,”  and  the  Celes-  I 
tial  Compass  twirled. 

Genius  again  excites  our  astonishment  by  the  vastness  and  rapid- 
ity of  its  inductions.  But  here  again  mind  is  not  a creator , but  on- 
ly a discerner.  The  vast  laws  it  announces,  it  simply  sees,  not  en- 
acts. Their  establishment  was  of  Old  and  by  the  Most  High. 
Those  laws  have  been  constantly  attested  from  the  Beginning,  by 
millions  of  particulars.  But  it  was  the  prerogative  of  Genius,  strict- 
ly and  exclusively  heeding  a certain  order  of  Association,  to  simply 
read  and  interpret  that  testimony.  The  links  of  a law  of  nature 
must  be  noted,  as  they  glitter  into  sight  amid  the  hurried  transit  of 
associated  thought,  till  they  wreathe  themselves  into  a great  ordi- 
nance enchaini  ng  nature  to  the  throne  of  God.  Apples  had  fallen 
in  the  view  of  man  ever  since  Eve  ate  of  the  fatal  tree  in  Eden. 
But  it  was  the  Genius  of  Attention  in  the  mind  of  Newton  that  first 
arrested  for  analysis  the  fleeting  phenomenon,  and  put  it  under 
duresse  and  question,  till  it  should  disclose  its  secret,  and  witness 
of  the  Law  of  Gravitation  and  the  system  of  the  physical  Universe. 

In  this  manner  has  the  faculty  of  Attention  ever  been  the  Fa- 
miliar of  the  Philosopher,  the  Artist,  the  Poet  and  the  Orator.  It 
was  this  that  made  Cuvier  a restorer  of  the  ante-historic  cycles  of 
the  earth.  It  was  his  intense  and  exclusive  heed  of  certain  orders 
of  relation  and  suggestion — those  of  comparative  anatomy — in  pe- 
rusing the  geologic  tablets  of  the  Earth,  that  enabled  him  from  a 
fragment  of  fossil  bone  to  restore  a lost  tribe  of  the  animal  king- 
dom, and  find  in  the  cliff  and  mountain  a storied  urn  of  a Past  World. 

It  was  this  that  to  Linnaeus,  strictly  and  intently  pursuing  analo- 
gies of  physiology  and  structure  through  the  pictured  maze  of  the 
vegetable  world,  revealed  the  secret  of  the  Order  of  Flora  and  clas- 
sified her  confused  gorgeousness  from  the  Arctic  Circle  to  the  Line. 

It  was  this  that  enabled  Praxiteles  to  arrest  the  glorious  Ideal 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  19 

in  dim  and  fugitive  shape,  and  to  make  it  stand  at  his  easel  until 
he  could  transfuse  its  beauty  from  soul  to  canvass,  and  lo,  one  fairer 
than  the  Sea-born  stood  before  ravished  Antiquity.  It  was  this 
that  held  the  Archetypes  of  the  soul  spell-bound  under  the  gaze  of 
a Phidias  or  a Michael  Angelo,  till  the  world  saw  its  own, long,  dim- 
glimpsed  and  shadowy  dream  of  Ideal  grandeur  and  awe,  bodied 
forth  in  the  Olympian  Jove,  or  the  Angel  of  the  Last  Judgment. 

So  again  Poetic  Genius,  though  undoubtedly  implying  peculiar 
original  gifts,  presents  to  us,  in  its  moods  of  inspiration,  mind  in  stead- 
fast and  eclectic  attention  to  the  aesthetic  relation  of  things  and  the 
aspects  and  similitudes  of  life . Its  norm  of  eclecticism  is  a feel- 
ing of  life  and  beauty,  or  I may  rather  sety,  of  a Beautiful  Life  ; for 
i it  is  attracted  to  Beauty  as  the  garment  of  soul — as  the  face  of 
Passion  and  Feeling.  The  ^Esthetic  is  to  it  the  exponent  of  the 
Moral.  Under  the  power  of  this  feeling  of  Beauty  and  Life,  it 
idealizes  and  impersonates  all  it  touches.  All  things  live ; but 
with  a life  and  form,  though  like,  still  passing  the  actual.  Mark 
this  faculty  in  the  great  types  of  the  Poetic  mind — a Homer  for  in- 
stance, or  Dante,  a Shakspeare  or  Milton.  How  intent  and  en- 
tranced its  gaze,  how  piercing  its  insight,  how  quick  and  delicate 
its  eclecticism  and  appropriation  of  the  poetic  element,  as  the  intel- 
lectual ray  flashes  through  the  Infinite.  The  common  seas  and 
skies  and  mountain  and  river,  and  the  common  aspects  of  the 
changing  seasons,  and  of  Day  and  Night,  were  around  them 
as  around  all ; and  also  the  common  scenery  of  mortal  life,  and  the 
common  dreams  that  wander  to  us  from  the  awful  realms  beyond  it. 
But  peculiarly  their  own , was  the  rapt,  eclectic,  idealizing  and  en- 
souling gaze,  with  which  they  ranged  the  realm  of  nature  and  of 
soul ; selecting,  combining  and  grouping  everywhere  by  msthetic 
principles.  Under  that  gaze  nature  changed  to  spirit.  Darkness 
kindled  up  with  faces  of  Beauty,  Silence  started  to  Music,  and 
Death  became  a new  glory  or  an  awful  mystery  of  Life. 

That  gaze  with  microscopic  fineness  and  telescopic  vastness  of 
vision,  in  its  infinite  traverse  pursuing  not  the  relations  of  science 
j or  logic,  but  as  an  Instinct  of  Life  and  Beauty,  making  an  JEsthetic 
I extract  of  the  Universe , ranged  the  real  and  ideal  world ; the  world 


20 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


j of  the  Living  and  the  Dead,  the  Past  and  the  Future,  the  Sensible 

1 1 and  the  Spiritual,  purveying  from  all  their  elements  of  the  Grand  and 

!j  Fair,  and  their  wealth  of  Life, — semblant  or  real — its  glory  and  pas- 

! sion  and  suffering  and  power.  Thus  it  subsidized  all  time  and  space, 

! and  all  moods  and  forms  of  being,  from  the  star-paned  Olympus  to 

gloom}’-  Tartarus  ; from  the  burning  sea  and  the  pale  nations  of  Ev- 
erlasting sorrow  to  the  Orders  bright  and  Hallelujahs  round  the 
Eternal  Throne — to  swell  the  pomp  of  their  great  arguments. 

The  materials  thus  purveyed,  again,  under  the  aesthetic  principle 
i of  affinity  steadfastly  applied  to  them,  recombine  and  crystalize  in- 

j to  a new  Universe — a Universe  sublimated,  idealized  like  the  real, 

| and  of  it,  and  yet  not  it.  In  it  the  mountain  rose,  the  forest  waved, 

and  the  cataract  dashed,  the  rainbow  threw  its  arch,  the  Earthquake 
yawned  and  the  Deep  lifted  up  his  hands  on  high  against  the  stormy 
or  the  starry ’sky.  There  were  the  forms  of  heroic  men,  or  dream- 
like faces  of  female  loveliness — the  sweetness  and  the  woe  of  mor- 
tal affection — the  Pageant  and  the  Doom  of  Empire — the  pride  and 
passion  and  glory  of  life,  and  the  silent  kingdoms  of  the  sad  De- 
parted— all  life-like,  or  verisimilar,  and  wearing  the  type  of  objec- 
tive realities  presented  to  the  outward  sense  or  the  eye  of  faith,  but 
all  draped  in  the  mezzotint  of  the  Ideal,  and  showing  in  poetic  di- 
orama like  images  projected  through  the  painted  windows  of  some 
Gothic  Cathedral,  or  glimpsed  dim,  fantastic,  and  dilated  in  its  col- 
ored light.  Beside  these  types  of  the  real,  arose  also  in  the  recom- 
bination, forms  belonging  purely  to  the  empire  of  the  Imagination  . 
of  all  orders,  from  “ Gorgons  and  Hydras  and  Chimeras  dire  ” and 
i the  Horrors  at  the  Gate  of  Hell,  to  the  Queen  of  Beauty  and  the 
Lord  of  Light  and  the  Angel  of  the  Sun  ; and  from  the  Ariel  and 
Titania  of  Shakspeare  to  the  Lucifer  of  Dante  and  Satan  of  Milton 
— all,  if  of  Nature,  yet  as  far  removed  from  it,  as  the  Andromeda 
i of  Lvbia  from  the  Andomeda  of  the  Stars,  or  Proserpine  gathering 
flowers  at  Enna  from  Proserpine  on  the  throne  of  Dis. 

This  Poetic  idealization  or  imagination  is  only  mind  in  steadfast, 
aesthetic  attention,  till  laws  of  association  present  the  fitting  combi- 
nation. For  wonderful  to  tell,  while  the  mind  looks,  not  only  does 
the  object  resolve  itself  and  develope  its  poetic  relations  and  affini- 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  21  I 


ties,  but  by  force  of  affinities  thus  disclosed,  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Associative  laws,  guided  by  these  affinities,  as  its  elements 
recombine,  into  the  Ideal ; just  as  in  the  material  world  under  the 
operation  of  the  strongest  solvent  forces,  as  for  instance,  of  the 
galvanic  battery,  not  only  is  the  old  compound  resolved  but  the  new 
is  created.  The  mightiest  analysts  are  the  mightiest  creators.  The 
same  elements  that  decompose  the  dead  animal  or  vegetable  sub- 
stance, build  anew  the  beauty  of  Flower  or  the  Living  Body.  The 
office  of  the  mind  as  far  as  it  depends  on  the  will , in  poetic  creation, 
is  to  hold  fast  the  theme  and  the  aesthetic  relations  developed,  with 
stern  exclusiveness  rejecting  all  alien  elements,  and  all  the  inapt 
combinations  which  a capricious  or  fantastic  suggestion  may  present  , 
until  the  perfect,  the  Beau  Ideal  is  exhibited. 

Of  Poetic  Genius,  then,  we  may  predicate  as  the  inseparable 
mood,  if  not  the  very  essence — the  uniform  attribute,  if  not  the 
very  substance — Attention — eclectic  of  the  Sublime  and  Beautiful 
- — earnest  and  concentrative — and  by  force  of  co-operative  mental 
laws  analytic  and  creative.  Such  an  attention,  directed  to  the  Vis- 
ible or  Invisible  realms — to  the  Material  Universe  or  the  scenery  of 
Society,  or  the  inner  world  of  Soul,  must  eminently  have  marked 
the  Masters  of  Song.  What  time  must  they  have  given  to  trance- 
like thoughts  while  following  the  requisite  law  of  Association  they 
were  borne  beyond  the  actual  into  the  outer  infinite  of  the  phantom- 
peopled  Ideal.  With  what  rigid  exclusiveness  must  they  have  shut 
out  the  outward  and  real,  and  whatever  would  break  the  spell  of 
ideality,  and  interrupt  the  solemn  genesis  of  new  worlds.  Each 
subject  of  observation  and  thought  must  have  been  made  to  show 
its  aesthetic  aspect,  and  to  start  a new  series  of  the  Beautiful,  to  be 
subjected  to  a new  eclecticism  and  combination. 

Now  imagine  a mind  with  such  an  attention,  combined  with  the 
boundless  discursiveness  of  the  great  masters  of  Ancient,  Medieval 
and  Modern  Song  which  we  have  mentioned — at  work  in  the  school 
of  Nature  and  Life  and  reflective  Thought  for  years  : what  a mag- 
azine of  the  ideal  it  must  have  prepared ! What  a wealth  of  beau- 
ty and  grandeur  and  passion  l What  an  infinite  permutation  and 
combination  of  the  poetic  elements ! What  a faculty  like  instinct 


/ 


22 


PIIILOMATIIESIAN  SOCIETY. 


selective,  appropriative  and  formative  of  them  it  must  have  exhib- 
ited ! What  an  Ideal  Universe,  and  aDemiurgos,  creative  and  ad- 
ministrative of  it ! — Age  may  have  cooled  life’s  fever  and  quenched 
the  fine  phrensy  of  the  outward  eye  in  perpetual  night:  hut  such 
has  been  the  vividness  and  precision  and  strength  of  the  portraiture 
drawn  upon  the  mind,  and  such  the  disciplined  habit  of  steadfast 
and  absorbing  concentrativeness  of  thought,  that  the  eye  of  the 
mind  seems  kindled  to  keener  intensity,  and  to  discern  more  clear- 
ly the  inner  world  now  that  the  outward  is  recognized  with  a duller 
sense,  or  forever  withdrawn.  That  world  for  many  years  had  grown 
upon  their  gaze,  as  grow  new  worlds  under  the  microscope  or  as 
grow  the  stars  upon  eye  gazing  into  space ; had  grown  perpetually 
the  angels  of  the  human  mind,  the  aesthetic  and  elective  Laws  of 
Association  building  all  the  while  in  the  solitude  or  the  city,  the 
noon-tide  or  the  solemn  night.  And  what  an  inner  world  was  that 
which  now  grew  upon  the  eye,  as  under  the  rays  of  an  introspective 
attention  the  invisible  handwriting  and  picture  of  the  Past  came  j 
out  on  the  tablet  of  the  soul ! There  it  stood  photographed  ; called 
from  all  that  eye  had  seen,  or  ear  heard,  or  heart  conceived,  or 
fancy  dreamed — grouped  and  animate  by  the  “ feeling  infinite  ” of 
Life  and  Beauty — the  eclectic , Poetic  Cosmos — the  aesthetic  re- 
print of  the  Universe.  There  was  the  vast,  varied,  passionate, 
and  phantom-drama  of  the  Present;  the  splendor  of  cities,  the 
pomp  of  thrones,  the  tramp  of  armies,  the  clang  of  plumed  and  j 
bristling  Battle  ; kaleidoscope  forms  of  the  brave,  the  strong  and  the 
beautiful ; and  there  in  funeral  procession  followed  the  solemn  Past, 

— of  the  Present  the  gloomy  and  mournful  shadow ; there  too  was 
Imagination’s  brood — Sons  of  pale  Erebus  or  Holy  Light,  with  the 
Scyllean  Bage,  the  enchanted  gardens,  and  Syren’s  Isle.  There 
were  the  Crystal  Battlements  and  the  Sapphire  Blaze  of  Heaven, 
and  there  the  awful  structures  of  Eternal  Night,  and  the  gloomy 
Palace  of  the  King  of  Hell ; there  wandered  the  Happy  amid  am- 
aranth and  ever-blooming  asphodel ; or  zephyrs  sighed  along  the 
stream  of  oblivion,  and  funeral  trees  waved  dusky  branches  amid 
the  pale  skies  of  Eternal  Pain.  The  white-robed  walked  along  the 
streets  of  pearl  and  the  River  of  Life,  or  the  Lost  shrieked  around 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS. 


23 


the  City  of  Dis  and  the  Burning  Sea,  or  the  Departed  stretched 
their  shadowy  hands  across  the  Dark  Elver,  still  longing  and  lov- 
ing, towards  the  children  of  Mortality.  There  stood  they  all,  wait- 
ing the  heraldry  of  their  Orchestral  Song — the  archetypes  of  the 
Verse  that  was  to  chasm  all  time. 

Oratory,  again,  is  a kindred  exhibition  of  attention  guided  by  the 
peculiar  exigencies  and  elective  affinities  of  the  theme , the  occasion , 
and  the  object . In  the  first  place,  it  is  the  utterance  of  a send  pos- 
sessed with  it , intensely  attentive  to  its  theme ; I may  almost  say,  of 
a soul  become  an  impersonation  of  its  theme  ; to  such  a degree 
does  it  merge  self-consciousness  in  it.  The  theme,  brooded  and 
meditated,  must  have  uttered  its  eloquence  to  the  listening  soul,  and 
breathed  conviction  and  passion  there,  before  it  can  transfuse  them 
into  other  minds.  Hence  no  tricks  of  art,  no  studied  attitude  or 
movement  or  intonation  can  achieve  genuine  eloquence.  Nature  re- 
fuses to  become^ac complice  to  a counterfeit.  The  muscles  of  the 
frame,  the  organs  of  the  voice,  the  light  of  the  eye  will  not  play 
for  it.  The  inimitable  tone,  aspect  and  action  of  true  sentiments, 
nothing  but  the  theme  impersonate  and  sovereign  in  the  soul,  can 
commend.  They  come  from  looking  not  at  terms,  but  things.  The 
inspiration  comes  from  passing  beyond  the  veil  of  other  men’s  words 
or  thoughts  into  the  very  sanctuary  of  Reality  and  Truth. 

In  the  second  place,  a species  of  triple  consciousness  must  pos- 
sess the  Orator,  first  of  his  theme,  and  secondly  of  his  auditory  as 
related  to  the  theme  and  in  the  third  place,  of  the  object  or  end  to 
be  achieved  by  the  application  of  the  theme  to  the  minds  before 
him.  This  end — or  to  move  those  minds  in  a given  direction,  by 
attraction  or  impulsion  or  conviction — is  the  Orator’s  norm  of 
eclecticism  applied  to  the  thronging  ideas  which  Suggestion,  stimu- 
lated by  the  occasion,  crowds  upon  him.  He  has  to  frame  a triple 
charm,  massive,  glowing  and  glittering,  of  Logic,  Taste  and  Pas- 
sion : knitting  the  Cytherean  Cestus  with  the  Scourge  of  the  Erin- 
nyes,  and  wreathing  with  both  the  chain  let  down  from  the  throne  of 
Highest  Jove,  and  binding  all  things  (the  %o  kalov  and  to  8 m von 
with  the  o logos')  ; and  to  fashion  his  charms  with  the  peculiar  apti- 
tudes fitting  the  minds  to  be  moved  by  it. 


't 


The  power  of  concentrating  the^energy  of  the  mind  with  light- 
ning stroke  and  star-like  steadfastness  on  the  objects  of  this  triple 
consciousness  and  on  the  multiplex  and  shifting  aspects  of  the  tri- 
ple relation  between  them,  is  the  prerogative  of  the  Genius  of  Per- 
suasion. It  is  only  when  all  the  elements  of  the  triple  relation  are 
vast  and  noble  that  the  highest  order  of  Eloquence  is  born — the 
theme  great — the  auditory  great,  in  power,  character  or  destiny, 
and  an  End  moving  and  mighty.  When  all  these  are  great,  speech 
is  great  if  uttered  by  a mind  whose  attention  develops  their  great- 
ness. Oft-times  the  light  and  inattentive  glance  will  fail  to  detect 
it  even  if  present.  But  in  case  of  such  failure  in  regard  to  either 
of  these,  one  element  of  the  highest  eloquence  is  wanting.  The 
mind  of  the  preacher,  for  instance,  must  not  only  sympathize  with 
the  vastness  of  the  doctrine  he  unfolds,  and  of  the  End  to  which  he 
would  persuade,  but  must  see  before  him,  not  merely  so  many  weak, 
ignorant  and  sinful  men  and  women,  but  an  assembly  of  the  heirs  of 
eternity — bearing  in  themselves  the  destiny  of  gods  for  weal  or 
woe,  for  glory  or  shame.  The  mind  must  thus  discern  the  great- 
ness of  his  auditory  or  his  thought  and  speech  will  not  rise  to  the 
real  greatness  of  the  occasion.  So  in  regard  to  the  Subject  and  the 
End  ; a strongly  directed  attention  must  evolve  their  vastness,  or  no 
original  gifts  can  bestow  eloquence. 

Such  an  attention  it  was,  and  no  Pythian  inspiration  or  breath  of 
Muse  that  whispered  in  the  ear  of  a Demosthenes  in  the  stormy 
Ecclesia,  or  a Tully  in  the  earth-ruling  Senate — of  a Chatham  in 
the  British  Parliament  ; or  an  Adams  in  the  Continental  Congress. 
Imagine  one  of  these  rising  in  his  historic  forum.  As  the  mood  of 
power  comes  on  him  you  see  in  face-attitude  and  gesture,  the  con- 
centrated soul.  Yet  not  like  the  poet,  carried  away  by  his  theme  (; 

from  the  Actual  to  the  Ideal.  Contrariwise,  he  is  in  intense  sym-  i 

pathy  with  the  Actual — intensely  conscious  not  only  of  his  theme, 
but  of  his  auditory,  of  the  Persuasion,  and  the  practical  End.  He 
grasps  his  subject  with  the  energy  of  spasm,  and  grapples  it  upon 
his, quick  consciousness  with  bands  of  steel — and  thus  applied,  he 
holds  it  up  before  the  mind,  fixed  in  the  focus  of  the  intellectual 
vision,  till  that  which  at  first  seemed  dark  and  dead,  glows  and  takes 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  25  | 

I 

'.  . I 

fire,  and  flashes  out  its  relations.  Lines  of  order  and  life  gleam  | 

out.  It  is  a Promethean  process — a creative  energy. 

The  theme  itself  now  seems,  as  it  were,  strangely  to  assume  an 
objective  life  and  personality.  A strange  interaction  seems  to  take 
place  between  it  and  the  gazing  soul — an  interaction  intensifying 
the  attraction  that  unites  them ; as  under  the  intent  view  of  the 
fascinated  soul,  new  life  and  interest  look  forth  from  the  theme, 
constantly  strengthening  that  fascination. 

The  mind  seems  to  project  itself — its  own  interest  and  passion 
upon  the  theme — and  then  to  be  irresistibly  attracted  towards  its 
own  image  reflected  there.  It  is  the  fable  of  Eros  and  Chaos- — 
Love  impregnating  shadow.  It  is  Pygmalion  ravished  over  the  life 
waking  from  the  marble. 

Intense,  concentrative  earnestness  now  gives  inimitable  magic  to  !! 
tone,  look  and  movement.  The  heart  of  nature  in  the  auditory  re-  lj 
sponds  to  the  potency  of  nature  in  the  Orator.  The  electric  chain  of 
sympathy  which  multiplies  while  it  transmits,  thrills  with  a common  |j 
sentiment  from  bosom  to  bosom.  He  sees  himself  reflected  back 
on  all  sides  round  as  in  a room  hung  with  mirrors,  his  conviction  ji 
and  emotion  flashing  back  to  him  from  each  face. 

Pie  is  now  the  conscious  centre  of  a multitude  of  sympathies — lj 

the  common  heart  of  the  assemblage — that  heart  throbbing  with  one  j 

idea.  Numbers  now  no  longer  distract:  they  multiply  the  con- 
centrative force.  Not  that  he  becomes  unconscious  of  his  auditory  j 
as  we  are  sometimes  told.  He  is  intensely  conscious  both  of  them  | 

and  his  subject ; and  conscious  through  quick  sympathy  of  their  re*  j 

lation  to  each  other  and  to  the  end  to  be  secured.  And  this  com-  j 
plex  consciousness,  so  far  from  distracting,  only  multiplies  the  bands 
which  keep  the  mind  steadfast  to  its  aim,  and  render  more  delicate  ! 
and  nimble  the  eclecticism  that  appropriates,  as  by  instinct,  the  el- 
ements that  are  adapted  to  that  aim.  This  interaction  between  him-  j 
self  and  his  auditory  goes  on,  increasing  in  intensity,  till  in  the  fo- 
cus of  a multitude  of  minds  his  own  glows  as  if  girt  round  with  a 
circle  of  fire.  He  now  seems  rapt — absorbed,  merging  his  very  per- 
sonality— living,  moving,  having  being  in  the  One  Idea,  or  aim  of  I 
the  hour.  Self-abnegated,  forgot,  he  rises  superior  to  fear.  His 


20 


PHILOMATIIESIAN  SOCIETY. 


whole  port  is  changed,  his  mien  loftier  and  more  erect.  The  entire 
man  is  Pythic.  The  eye  kindles.  The  lip  wreaths.  The  nostril 
dilates.  The  breast  heaves  with  a strange  and  mighty  delight. 
The  ideal  of  ancient  sculpture  that  stood  in  the  temple  of  the  god 
of  light,  seems  growing  real  before  you. 

The  man  seems  now  only  embodied  speech — a self-uttering  soul. 
The  whole  man  is  utterance — not  the  lips  only,  each  limb,  each  mus- 
cle, each  fibre  speaks.  The  whole  body  seems  only  a transparen- 
cy, through  which  flashes  his  theme  now  wrought  to  a living  soul. 
The  entire  nature  is  roused,  and  each  faculty  in  its  mightiest  mood. 
The  invisible  writing  on  the  pages  of  memory  comes  out.  Now  the 
graves  open  and  the  dead  arise.  The  Past  all  lives.  The  veil  of 
oblivion  and  of  mystery  is  rent  in  twain.  Each  domain  of  nature 
and  being,  of  thought  and  act,  of  passion  and  imagination,  of  his- 
tory or  science  or  fiction,  is  subsidized,  and  with  the  strange  quick- 
ening of  the  intellectual  and  moral  being,  in  this  hour  of  exultant 
agonism,  the  chains  of  association,  by  which  thought  has  been  pre- 
viously bound  to  speech,  flash  out  and  shimmer  in  lines  of  fire,  and 
legions  of  words  come  trooping  around  him  like  embattled  armies 
startled  at  a mighty  larum.  The  hour  seems  as  an  epitome  of  his 
being.  The  Soul  seems  to  wreak  itself  in  words,  and  those  words 
lightnings. 

At  such  times  appears  the  full  glory  of  the  Orator,  perhaps  that 
of  the  loftiest  attitude  of  man  among  men — almost  as  of  a Superi- 
or Being  swaying  the  will  and  reason  as  he  lists — instinctively 
grasping  at  once  a multitude  of  heartstrings,  and  sweeping  them  in- 
to symphony  with  his  own  passion — and  hurling  forth  over  the  as- 
tounded auditory  the  bolts,  fiery  or  beautiful,  riving  and  overthrow- 
ing all  in  their  path.  An  embattled  storm — a veritable  cloud-com- 
peller— he  moves  along  his  victorious  march.  Above  and  beyond 
himself — yea,  above  and  beyond  man — almost  an  inspired  Revelator 
seems  he — yea,  almost  a very  revelation,  he  stands  before  us  in  such 
an  hour, — an  incarnated  Idea, — a Living  Logic, — a fiery-lipped 
Thought. 

Demosthenes  is  no  longer  Demosthenes,  but  Greece  herself — 

-starting  one  glorious  mo- 


trampled,  torn,  bleeding,  yet  beautiful,- 


REV.  MR.  POST  S ADDRESS. 


27 


ment  in  her  mighty  despair,  lifting  her  hand  to  the  blue  heavens 
over  her  heroic  Dead,  and  swearing  her  Great  Oath. 

Cicero  is  no  longer  Cicero,  but  the  awful  Genius  of  Eternal  Rome 
herself,  in  death-grapple  with  Assassin^. 

Paul  is  no  longer  Paul,  of  stammering  speech  and  feeble  pres- 
ence. He  has  put  on  “ the  Crucified.”  He  is  an  impersonation 
of  the  Everlasting  Gospel,  with  Logic  and  Love  kindled  at  the  Un- 
approachable Glory. 

Ames  is  no  longer  the  Senator — broken  and  bowed  with  pale  con- 
sumption. His  port  rises  to  the  awful  earnestness  and  command  of 
the  Genius  of  Humanity  itself,  with  intellectual  buckler  beating 
back  from  the  land  the  storm  of  War — and  pouring  warning  and 
wail  upon  the  ears  of  the  pale  Senate.  His  voice  is  the  cry  of  woe  to 
a thousand  log  cabins  beyond  the  mountains — the  shriek  of  a thou- 
sand miles  of  frontier  burning  with  savage  war. 

Whitfield  is  no  longer  Whitfield,  but  the  Great  Doom  itself  im- 
personate, summoning  a pale  and  conscience-stricken  world  to  the 
Bar  of  Eternal  Judgment. 

In  such  moments  the  Orator  stands  before  you  as  an  accepted 
and  legitimate  Lord  of  Mankind.  The  mind  of  the  thousands  is 
only  one  vast  organ  on  which  he  plays  as  he  lists.  The  doubtful 
become  confident,  the  apathetic  enthusiastic,  and  the  feeble  are  he- 
roes. Everything  gives  way  before  the  roused  and  collected  en- 
ergies of  a mind  thus  quickened  to  almost  superhuman  might,  un- 
der the  power  of  an  idea  steadfastly  contemplated,  till  by  its  self- 
evolution it  has  fascinated  and  possessed  the  mind,  and  of  a theme 
held  fast-bound  upon  the  soul,  till  it  has  become  as  coals  of  fire. 
Thus  possessed  and  inflamed,  he  rushes  on,  one  central  soul-attract  • 
ing,  illumining  and  bearing  along  all  others — a sun  trailing  a starry 
host  up  its  high  orbit  of  order  and  light,  or  a baleful  meteor  stream- 
ing with  its  train  into  night. 

Such,  young  gentlemen  of  the  Philomathesian  Society,  are  some 
of  the  relations  of  attention  to  the  common  phenomena  of  Genius. 
It  is  not  because  of  the  want  of  Truth  and  Beauty  in  this  universe 
of  ours,  nor  of  souls  responsive  to  aesthetic  and  logical  laws,  that 


28 


’IIILOMATIIESIAN  SOCIETY. 


men  so  often  fail  of  becoming  wise,  original  or  eloquent ; but  from 
the  want  of  the  open  eye,  and  steadfast  eclectic  gaze. 

This  faculty  or  habit  of  the  mind,  is  eminently  cultivable , though 
existing  perhaps  in  different  degrees  in  different  minds ; and 
cultivable,  like  all  our  other  faculties,  by  exercise.  By  patient  and 
resolute  practice  it  may  become  the  fixed  habit  of  the  mind,  so  that 
it  shall  approach  every  subject  with  a grasp  quick,  strong  and  tensive 
as  a spring  of  steel.  In  all  reading  and  study  and  thought,  make  it 
a point  to  fix  clearly  and  precisely  the  specific  object  to  be  achieved  or 
considered.  Then  cleave  to  that  object  spite  of  all  tempting  sugges- 
tions and  diverting  ideas.  Keep  the  mind  not  only  true  to  the  gener- 
al aim,  but  to  a distinct,  fine  point.  Then  as  relation  after  relation 
is  developed,  and  associated  thoughts  troop  in, bar  out  all  aliens  and 
vagrants.  Use  a religious  exclusiveness.  From  the  intellectual 
sanctuary  be  all  intruders  banished  as  Gentile  and  Profane,  no  mat- 
ter how  gorgeous  or  fascinating. 

Beware  of  the  intoxication  and  fascination  of  a day-dreaming 
re  very.  Beware  of  counting  mere  chaotic  drift  of  ideas  for  thoughts, 
or  disorderly  and  miscellaneous  cramming  for  knowlege.  What  is 
needed  is  to  translate  chaotic  ideas  into  organized  thought  and  sys- 
tematic truth.  All  the  rocks  of  the  Andes  do  not  make  a single 
St.  Peters,  or  an  infinitude  of  Chaos,  a solar  system  or  a single  star. 
Grasp  then  with  steadfast  hold,  as  you  attempt  the  analysis  of  a 
theme,  both  the  theme  and  the  chain  of  association  pertinent  to 
your  object  for  the  time.  Be  its  law  of  relation  the  iron  rule  and 
order  of  your  thought  for  the  hour.  Follow  the  appropriate  clue 
and  it  alone.  Enter  the  apartment  to  which  it  guides,  inexorably 
turning  from  all  tempting  side-views,  and  disregarding  all  repelling 
obstacles.  Spite  of  seductions  or  fears,  hold  fast  the  changeful 
j Proteus,  till  he  answers  your  inquiry.  Be  the  prize  you  seek  guarded 
j like  the  apples  ol  the  Hesperides,  by  dragons  and  fire-breathers — 

| or  worse,  like  the  treasure  of  some  weird  castle  watched  by  the 

guileful  beauty  of  tempting  enchantresses,  still  champion  all — be  a 
hero.  Amid  legions  of  phantoms — images  and  combinations,  gro- 
tesque, fantastic  and  monstrous — and  truths  and  trains  of  thought, 
glimpsing  beautiful  and  attractive  through  side-avenues  ; through 


REV.  MR.  POST  S ADDRESS. 


29 


an  army  of  tropes  and  metaphors,  similitudes,  contrasts,  causations, 
correlations  and  allusions — bewildering  like  a Boreal  Aurora  flit- 
ting and  flashing  around  you  ; still  undazzled,  unseduced,  unterri- 
fied, move  sternly  on  to  your  purposed  goal. 

Some  minds  there  are,  which  seem  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  every 
casual  suggestion,  turned  aside  by  every  allusion,  borne  off  captive 
by  every  trope.  They  are  not  masters' of  their  own  minds,  and  con- 
sequently rarely  masters  of  any  subject  or  science.  When  en- 
gaged with  Mathematics,  they  can  not  be  brought  near  a Geometric 
Diagram,  but  that  it  forthwith  changes  to  the  Musical  Staff,  and 
straightway 

“ In  many  a winding  bout 

Of  linked  sweetness  long  drawn  out,” 

they  are  hopelessly  meshed,  or  in  the  bewilderment  of  octaves, 
counterpoints,  thundering  crescendos,  and  shrieking  sopranos,  in 
some  stormy  bravura  they  are  rapt  away.  They  can  never  acquire 
the  Science  of  Astronomy,  for  that  they  are  perpetually  beset  with 
its  poetry.  Their  Logic  is  ever  ready  to  sigh  into  sentiments  ; their 
chemistry  evaporates  into  cloud-castles  ; their  History  bolts  the 
track  of  the  Actual,  and  dashes  off  into  the  Ideal.  They  can  nev- 
er get  the  arts  of  Eloquence,  because  they  are  always  dreaming  of 
its  triumphs.  They  are  in  imagination  overwhelming  applauding 
Senates  and  lachrymose  Juries,  when  they  should  be  patiently  dig- 
ging into  the  roots  of  Grammar  and  Law.  With  the  book  of  Phys- 
ics before  them,  instead  of  resolutely  wrestling  with  its  dry  Statics 
and  Dynamics  and  Pneumatics  and  Electrics,  they  are  run  away  with 
by  revery,  amid  the  scenery  of  mountains  and  rivers  and  groves  and 
flowers,  chasing  the  sweet  sights  and  sounds  of  nature,  or  the  Sylphid 
and  Dryad  forms  of  not  immortal  Mould,  that,  in  fancy’s  picturing, 
figure  amid  the  material  world  whose  philosophy  they  would  search 
out.  They  can  not  learn  Metaphysics  because  they  are  carried 
away  by  each  passion  they  would  analyse.  The  necromancer  is 
borne  off  by  the  Spirit  he  calls  up  ; the  chemist  is  blown  up  by  his 
own  crucible  and  retort.  Philosophy  runs  wild  with  Imagination 
and  Passion.  Shakspeare  and  Spenser  overshadow  Plato  and  Jus- 


30 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


| 


tinian,  and  Moore  and  Byron  and  Scott  are  picturing  the  pages  of 
Locke  and  Chitty. 

Some,  again,  are  slaves  and  victims  to  their  own  wit.  They  can 
no  more  withhold  a witticism  than  they  can  hold  coals  of  fire.  It 
will  out,  in  the  Pulpit  or  at  the  Grave.  Some  minds,  again,  of  an 
inflammable  order,  explode  at  a word.  They  fly  off  rocket-like  at 
some  grammatical  form.  Those  of  a mercurial  temperament  such 
as  I wot  of  in  “ life’s  young  summer,”  are  upset  at  the  outset  of 
the  study  of  language,  by  encountering  a verb  they  are  too  apt  to 
conjugate  in  actual  life,  which  meets  them  at  the  threshold  of  all 
the  dialects  of  the  earth  : A common,  classic,  regular,  very  regu- 
lar, verb  ; there  it  stands,  in  the  Latin  “ Amare,”  in  the  German 
“ Lieben,”  French,  “Aimer,”  English  “ To  Love.”  There  is  no 
getting  by  the  word,  and,  alas ! what  diablerie  there  is  in  it ! 
What  Spirits  come  trooping  up  at  its  “ Presto.”  A tempest  of 
sighs  and  smiles  and  tears  and  fair  faces  aud  bright  eyes  sweeps  by. 

In  a storm  of  satin  and  muslin  and  azure  and  scarlet,  of  cashmeres, 
laces,  rosettes,  ringlets,  brocade  and  prunella,  the  man  is  gone,  clear 
gone — rapt  off  like  Rome’s  great  Founder  ; translated  in  a tempest 
to  the  stars.  But  alas  for  the  less  mercurial  elements  of  meta-  j 
physics  and  grammar  and  hermeneutics,  that  will  not  float  in  that  | 
high  ether — they  are  left  far  behind. 

But  while  some  are  thus  at  the  caprice  of  every  superficial  and 
casual  association,  others  again  are  the  slaves  of  those  of  a Philo- 
sophic cast.  In  the  sparkling  and  genial  intercourse  of  the  social 
circle  they  are  cyphers  or  bores,  because  some  abstract  speculation, 
tangential  to  the  topic  on  hand ; or  some  Philosophic  habit  or  hobby 
ever  ready  to  seize  on  the  suggestive  principle,  bears  them  off  to  j 
the  outer  and  solitary  Deeps.  Now  with  all  the  habitudes  of  these 
descriptions — with  all  seductions,  diversions,  obstacles  and  bewil- 
derments, the  successful  thinker  must  resolutely  wrestle.  Through 
all,  the  intellectual  Hero  must  press  sternly  on — through  avenues 
of  fair  or  fiery  shapes,  till  he  reach  the  secret  chamber  and  wake 
the  glorious  sleeper — the  virgin  Truth  that  is  guarded  there. 

To  such  an  extent  is  the  attention  cultivable,  and  so  much  is  it 
under  the  control  of  habit,  that  circumstances  seemingly  most  un- 


REV.  MR.  POST  S ADDRESS. 


31 


favorable  and  distracting  may  at  last  become  the  most  efficient  aids 
and  almost  indispensable  requisites  to  its  exercise.  Thus,  while  some 
can  attend  only  in  the  silence  and  solitude  of  the  study,  others  seem 
to  require  the  clatter  and  din  of  assemblies,  and  to  find  a stimulus 
to  this  faculty  in  the  bustle  of  business,  and  the  confusion  of 
the  Counting-room  and  the  Exchange.  We  come  in  time,  by  force 
of  practice,  to  extract  concentrative  and  tranquilizing  influences, 
from  that  which  is  naturally  most  perturbing  and  distracting  ; like 
the  man  related  to  have  accustomed  himself  to  seek  repose  in  the 
interior  of  steam  boilers  in  the  process  of  manufacture,  till  at  last 
the  din  of  the  trip-hammer  and  the  welded  iron  became  requisite  to 
brace  and  compose  his  nerves  to  slumber. 

It  is  important  that  the  public  speaker  cultivate  a hardihood  of 
attention.  Some  are  discomposed  and  upset  by  a lis  tless  look  or 
yawn,  as  is  related  of,  I think,  Erskine  in  his  maiden  Parliamenta- 
ry effort.  As  he  first  rose  in  the  blouse,  bringing  to  the  aid  of  the 
opposition  his  distinguished  reputation  for  eloquence  as  a barrister, 
the  intense  public  expectation  of  both  parties  waiting  his  debut,  to- 
gether with  the  novelty  of  the  circumstances  and  a sense  of  the 
importance  of  the  occasion,  naturally  oppressing  and  intimidating 
him,  a sceiie  like  the  following  (I  speak  from  general^  memory)  is 
related  to  have  ensued.  Pitt,  the  Premier,  seated  prominent  in  his 
place  on  this  occasion,  had  turned  toward  him  an  aspect  of  roused  and 
fixed  attention,  (unusual  for  him  to  bestow  upon  a speaker  in  Par- 
liament,) with  pen  in  hand  for  taking  notes.  Under  the  embarrass- 
ment of  the  scene,  Erskine  at  first  unhappily  faltered.  Pitt  there- 
upon looks  disappointed  and  doubtful.  Erskine  having  Pitt  in  di- 
rect eyeshot,  and  quickly  sensitive  to  such  manifestations,  hesitates 
and  stumbles  still  more.  Pitt  grows  listless.  Another  halting  and 
discomfited  sentence,  and  Pitt  contemptuously  lays  down  his  pen. 
Another  more  awful  boggle  of  Erskine’s,  now  divorced  from  his 
theme,  and  struggling  on  in  hopeless  bewilderment.  Pitt  yawns. 
One  more  attempt  of  the  now  desperate  and  confounded  speaker. 
Pitt  nods  assent  to  the  incoherent  and  floundering  orator.  Pitt  has 
-gone  to  sleep,  and  Erskine’s  eloquence  has  gone  with  Pitt.  This 
stroke  of  rhetorical  strategy,  which  we  have  dramatized  from  Wrax- 


32  PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


hall — for  so  we  must  consider  it- — is  said  well  nigh  to  have  killed 
| Erskine  as  a Parliamentary  speaker.  He  never  fully  recovered 

j from  it. 

I 

But  above  all,  it  is  needed  for  the  Preacher  to  cultivate  an  iron 
j nerve  in  this  matter.  lie  must  be  able  to  see  and  feel  and  utter 
intently  his  theme,  not  only  amid  the  difficulties  that  always  beset 
attention  to  spiritual  interests  amid  a world  of  Sense,  but  amid  a 
din  and  clatter  of  crowds,  and  a scenery  often  of  smirking  or  listless, 
or  nodding  faces,  that  would  drag  down  the  eloquence  of  a Gabriel. 
In  presence  of  such  an  auditory,  with  all  their  worldliness  and  fash- 
ion, their  greed  and  gaud,  their  pleasures  and  passions,  smiles  and 
signals,  carelessness  or  sneers,  (or  mores ),  he  must  still  bear  up, 
keep  up  not  only  the  tone  of  his  own  mind  in  stern  and  steadfast 
vision  upon  his  theme,  but  must  lift  his  auditory,  with  this  world 
thus  all  hanging  on  their  skirts,  up  amid  the  awful  solemnities  of 
the  Unseen — to  a vision  of  God,  Eternity  and  the  Great  Judgment. 
He  must  hold  fast  his  theme  against  all  sorts  of  foes  and  annoy- 
ances, or  he  fails.  He  must  fight  for  it  with  slamming  doors  and 
.explosive  coughs,  and  listless  yawns  and  looking  at  watches,  and 
flirting  of  fans,  and  sometimes  with  audible  whisperings  of  the  ill- 
bred  that  will  obtrude  their  vulgarity  on  public  assemblies ; and 
with  omnibuses  and  street-clamors,  and  fire-bells,  and  last  not  least 
with  “ Music  heavenly  maid,”  but  all  too  u young,  ” of  screaming 
Babyhood.  To  all  these  he  must  not  only  be  himself  superior,  but 
must  make  others  so,  to  meet  the  requisites  of  the  Genius  of  Sa- 
cred Eloquence. 

It  is  important,  also,  to  cultivate  nimbleness  as  well  as  steadfast- 
ness of  this  faculty — the  power  of  quick  transfer,  like  an  intense 
and  burning  ray  traversing  a mighty  range.  It  is  difficult  to  com- 
bine these  two  qualities  ; some  minds  are  like  a cambric  needle, 
quick,  sharp,  but  superficial — they  prick  and  prick,  but  never  kill. 
Others  are  like  the  Turkish  ordnance  of  the  Dardanelles  ; vast,  pon- 
derous and  able  to  sink  a whole  fleet  at  once,  could  they  only  be 
brought  to  bear.  But  it  takes  half  a day  to  load  them,  and  once 
discharged,  before  they  could  be  levelled  again,  the  navy  of  an 
Empire  might  pass  by.  So,  in  many  cases,  the  attention  is  strong 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  38 


and  ponderous  as  a Phalanx ; but  as  unwieldy  and  elephantine.  This 
is  an  especial  characteristic  often  of  the  Philosophic  habit  and  tem- 
perament ; as  in  the  case  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  who  could — if  not 
slanderously  misreported — mistake  the  fair  finger  of  the  lady  he  was 
wooing,  for  a tobacco  stopper  ! and  who  then  and  there — unless 
foully  belied  in  scholarly  tradition — did  actually  apply  the  delicate 
taper  instrument  that  was  thrilling  under  his  touch— the  Muse  of 
Philosophy  blushes  to  remember — to  that  abominable  office.  The 
result  of  Philosophic  speculations  on  the  aforesaid  memorable  occa- 
sion— what  new  dynamic  forces  he  discovered,  or  what  sort  of  stars 
he  saw — history  does  not  relate.  But  from  what  she  discloses,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  amid  the  stellar  scenery,  there  was  a sudden 
and  untoward  apparition  of  the  Medusa  ; and  we  are  left  to  regret 
for  the  sake  of  the  Philosopher  as  well  as  the  world,  that  one  so 
great,  because  his  attention  was  master  of  him,  could  not  have  been 
still  greater,  by  being  master  of  his  atttention. 

Our  analysis  also  developes,  in  part  at  least,  the  relation  of  Pas- 
sion to  Genius,  and  teaches  as  a practical  rule  of  vast  consequence 
to  subsidize  the  emotions.  Emotion  and  Attention  interact  and 
mutually  strengthen  each  other.  Emotion  is,  as  it  were,  the  elec- 
tric stimulus,  the  galvanic  fluid  of  mind,  quickening  it  to  energy 
and  tone,  arousing  and  concentrating  all  its  faculties,  and  giving 
them  the  power  of  focal  discharge  on  a given  object.  It  gives  the 
Attention  a burning  intensity  that  makes  its  impressions  immortal 
and  its  analysis  like  the  flame  of  the  Deflagrator.  Passion  burns 
its  letters  into  the  soul,  and  arms  it  with  a strength  and  nimbleness 
and  insight  almost  superhuman — as  it  sometimes  seems  to  endue  the 
muscular  system  with  preternatural  power.  All  of  us  have  won- 
dered at  times  at  the  facility  with  which  we  have  mastered  a diffi- 
cult theme  when  anything  chanced  to  throw  around  it  the  light  and 
heat  of  intense  emotion.  None  forget  their  hours  of  deep  pleasure 
or  woe,  the  scenery  of  intense  fear  or  love  or  moral  struggle  ; the 
bridal,  or  a mother’s  grave.  Call  in,  then,  the  affections  to  the  aid 
of  attention ; cluster  these  around  the  object  you  wish  to  investigate 
or  discuss.  Make  it  interesting.  Our  schemes  for  developing  and 
educating  mental  power,  too  much  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the 


34  PHILOMATIIESIAN  SOCIETY. 

emotions  are  tlie  vital  and  motive  stimuli  of  the  intellect.  As  a 
! common  rule,  study  and  read  only  where  you  can  secure  a feeling 
of  interest,  and  conversely,  aim  to  become  interested  in  what  it  be- 
comes a necessity  or  duty  to  pursue.  Study  itself,  as  it  opens  and  de- 
velops a subject,  will  often  create  an  interest  unfelt  before.  Pre- 
cious are  the  moods  of  interest  to  the  prosecution  of  any  study. 
Seize  on  such  moods,  they  are  worth  half  a life  of  listlessness  and 
languor  : such  moods  glow  with  intuition  and  force.  They  are,  more- 
over, not  only  seasons  of  most  rapid  and  facile  achievement,  but 
are  most  healthful  and  least  exhaustive  for  effort.  Emotionless 
drudgery  is  not  only  the  least  effective,  but  the  most  crushing  of  all 
labor,  both  to  body  and  mind.  All  know  how  much  more  difficult 
it  is  to  address  an  empty  house  than  a full  one,  and  how  many  a 
poor  minister  is  veritably  broken  down  by  the  very  smallness  of  his 
charge.  Aim,  then,  ever  to  project  the  fascination  of  interest  over 
your  theme.  To  this  end,  begin  with  meditating  it.  Ply  it  with 
interrogations.  What  ? — Whence  ? and  u Wherefore  ” ? — What  its 
relations  to  things  already  known  ? What  the  limits  of  your  know- 
ledge in  regard  to  it  ? What  part  of  its  landscape  is  dark  to  you  j 

and  needs  illumination  ? and  the  like.  Thus  brood  it  into  life  ; 
arouse  an  intellectual  appetite,  the  hunger  of  curiosity.  Remember 
| interest  is  not  in  the  subject  itself  any  more  than  color  and  beauty 
in  external  objects,  but  is  in  your  mind  and  its  relation  to  it ; and 
that  you  have  to  bring  out  this  interest  from  your  mind,  and  with  it 
invest  your  subject.  The  mind  may  be  said  to  project  itself  upon  ! 
its  theme  as  did  the  Hebrew  Prophet  upon  the  Shunamite’s  child, 
and  is  attracted  to  the  life  it  has  awakened — or  rather  it  stamps  up- 
i on  the  theme  its  own  impress  and  then  becomes  enamored  of  its 
i own  image  reflected  there.  Be,  then,  your  theme  however  dry  or 

j repulsive — if  it  lies  in  your  path  of  duty  or  success,  boldly  take  it 

up.  Throw  the  mind  in  the  steadfastness  and  abandonment  of 
trance  upon  it.  In  that  trance  the  Creative  voice  shall  come  to 

thee,  as  to  our  first  father  in  Eden.  Thou  shalt  feel  a spirit  of 

! Life  and  Beauty  evoked  forth  from  within  thee  and  assuming  an 
objective  form  and  existence.  The  soul  shall  wake  to  gaze  on  the 


evoked  spirit  of  Beauty  as  our  first  mother  started  under  the  wins- 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  35  \ 

! 

per  of  God  to  gaze,  half-life, half-dream,  on  her  own  loveliness  im= 
aged  in  the  fountain.  Be  assured  that  no  truth  in  this  Universe 
has  a right  to  he,  that  shall  not,  as  part  of  the  great  Unity,  have  as- 
pects and  relations  of  interest  and  value.  Be  confident,  then,  as 
God  lets  it  be,  there’s  life  in  it.  Bind  it  then  fast  upon  your  mind 
and  you  shall  at  last  feel  that  life,  whether  stealing  upon  you  with 
gradual  lambent  charm,  like  the  beamy  arms  of  the  love-sick  moon 
around  the  sleeping  Endymion,  or  rising  upon  you  in  solemn  gran- 
deur such  as  “ stays  the  evening  star  in  his  deep  course,”  or  with 
sudden  shock  startling,  like  the  larum  bolt  from  the  long-watched 
cloud. 

This  relation  of  emotion  to  the  attention  shows  us  why  it  often 
seems  impossible  to  some  minds  to  make  the  requisite  intellectual 
preparation  for  public  occasions  till  just  on  the  eve  of  those  occa- 
sions. - Why,  for  instance,  it  is  found  by  clergymen  often  so  much 
easier  to  study  their  thesis  for  the  Sabbath  on  Saturday  evening, 
than  on  any  previous  time  of  the  week.  It  is  not  simply  indolent 
procrastination  on  one  day  and  inexorable  necessity  on  the  other. 

But  the  coming  occasion  throws  its  shadow  before,  and  the  imme-  j 
diate  proximity  invests  the  theme  with  an  interest  that  strongly  at-  j 
tracts  the  mind  to  it,  and  makes  the  study  of  it  natural  and  easy.  j 

Nevertheless,  great  loss  is  incurred  by  such  a habit,  from  the  want  j 

of  opportunity  for  deliberate  study,  and  for  the  application  of  the  ! 
taste  and  reason  of  calmer  and  cooler  moments  to  products  which  j 
have  been  struck  off  in  moods  of  heated  and  turbid  power.  The 
lateness  of  the  excitement  of  interest  leaves  no  room  for  the  analy- 
sis that  should  follow.  Minds  compelled  thus  to  wait  the  very  brink 

of  occasions,  are  like  a Western  Steamer  that  never  can  rouse  her  i 
. | 
fires  to  get  steam  up,  till  the  moment  has  come  advertised  for  start- 
ing. We  need  to  aim  to  secure  emotion,  binding  the  mind  to  its  \ 
theme,  in  such  season  that  the  facile  and  powerful  attention  which 
interest  naturally  creates,  may  aid  in  the  deliberate  analysis  and 
fruitful  meditation  of  the  Study.  Those  that  can  not  act  unless  un- 
der the  immediate  stimulus  of  the  time  and  place  and  auditory, 
how  often,  when  the  interest  and  exigency  of  the  occasion  have 
rivetted  the  attention  on  its  theme,  as  it  were,  by  bands  of  fire — 


PIIILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


36 


I 


do  their  minds  look  longingly  and  regretfully  on  glorious  after- 
thoughts that  spontaneously  sparkle  out  after  the  hour  and  scene 
are  forever  passed.  The  occasion  has  kindled  the  theme  to  a burn- 
ing flame  that  has  left  its  track  through  the  mind,  like  the  path  of 
the  meteor  that  kindles  and  glistens  with  outflasliings  of  light,  as 
though  space  were  set  on  fire,  when  the  blazing  mass  itself  has 
sunk  below  the  horizon. 

The  relation  of  emotion  to  attention  explains  also  the  relation  of 
great  occasions  to  Genius.  We  have  heard  of  lecturers  growing 
eloquent  even  to  tears  over  a Greek  particle  or  an  Iota  subscript. 
But  it  is  commonly  great  occasions  that  make  thought  and  speech 
great.  They  produce  an  irresistible  convergency  of  the  public 
and  the  individual  mind  on  a single  interest,  and  the  intensity  of 
emotion  in  the  individual  is  multiplied  by  the  conspiring  sympathy 
of  the  Million ; till  a concentrative  power  is  created  like  the  cen- 
tripetal attractions  of  the  Solar  System — all  minds  centralizing  on 
one  theme  till  that  theme  glows  like  a Sun  in  the  skies,  filling  the 
earth  with  its  illuminating  and  genial  glow,  or  like  the  baleful  orb  of 
the  Apocalypse  scorching  men  with  its  lurid  heat. 

In  such  times  Titans  are  born.  Intellectual  power  seems  to 
come  forth  like  the  Genius  of  Oriental  fable,  ’mid  heralding  thun- 
der and  earthquake. 

Thus  often  the  most  brilliant  periods  of  literature  spring  from 
great  convulsions,  such  as  most  mightily  startle  and  concentrate  the 
minds  of  the  million.  They  bloom  often  from  agony  and  carnage, 
as  from  the  blood  of  Medusa  that  sowed  the  deserts  of  Africa  with 
serpents,  sprang  also  the  winged  steed  of  the  muses  and  Chrysaor 
of  the  golden  sword.  A Trojan  or  a Persian  war — the  death-strug- 
gles of  Freedom  against  Philip,  or  the  crimes  and  calamities  of 
falling  or  convulsed  empire — the  conflicts  of  ambition  for  vast  prizes 
and  on  high  theatres — great  national  struggles — crusades  dashing 
continent  upon  continent — epochs  dazzling  nations  with  victory  and 
intoxicating  with  conquests— the  discovery  of  new  Worlds,  or  vast 
achievements  of  Art  opening  startling  visions  of  Progress — these 
and  the  like,  may  be  the  arousing  and  concentrative  causes.  But 
especially  does  Genius  seem  born  of  the  life  or  death-throes  of 


I 


j ; 


i 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS. 


37 


vast  Truths  or  Falsehoods.  It  germinates  under  the  shadow  of 
awful  change.  Its  richest  fruitage  springs  from  the  earthquake  of 
Lutheran  or  Puritan  Reforms,  its  flames  of  rarest  beauty  broider 
the  crater  edge  of  Revolutions.  It  starts  up  like  the  bow  over  Ni- 
agara from  the  agony  of  great  Ideas — vast  hopes,  mighty  enthusi- 
asms, and  heroic  Despair. 

It  is  especially  of  such  periods  that  the  mightiest  Genius  of  El- 
oquence is  produced.  In  the  awful  crisis  of  history,  when  the  vi- 
tal issues  of  empire  are  at  stake,  and  times  and  seasons  change,  and 
order  seems  going  into  dissolution.  When  Governments  perish, 
Thrones  sink,  Liberty  falls,  or  Civilization  dies — then  often,  just  on 
the  brink  of  perpetual  Night,  the  Genius  of  Eloquence  seems  to 
waken  to  an  hour  of  glorious  euthanasia,  and  the  national  life, 
Swan-like,  pours  itself  forth  in  a strain  of  Ciceronian  or  Demos- 
| thenic  Music. 

The  phenomenon  of  the  vast  power  of  Genius  on  great  occasions 
is  not  simply  because  of  the  prodigious  concentrativeness  and  tonic 
action  of  the  mind,  wrought  by  the  consciousness  of  the  conspiring 
sympathy  of  great  masses,  and  the  fact  that  all  interests  and  pas- 
sions of  the  period  converge  toward  the  same  point,  but  we  must 
add  the  fact  also,  that  the  attention  of  the  auditory  is  intensified 
by  the  same  causes,  and  every  thing  uttered  is  in  consequence  re- 
ceived with  a quicker  apprehensiveness  and  larger  interpretation. 
Words  are  to  them  more  significant  and  strike  the  key  to  deeper 
passions.  The  theme  is  already  heated  and  glowing  and  dilated  in 
the  atmosphere  of  their  own  minds,  and  is  there  already  knit  up 
with  passion,  logic,  and  persuasion.  The  speaker  has  little  more  to 
do  than  throw  coals  into  a magazine.  But  effects  are  ascribed  to 
him  which  belong  quite  as  much  to  the  previous  condition  of  the 
minds  he  addresses. 

Were  we  to  attempt  in  the  light  of  this  theory  to  cast  the  hor- 
oscope of  the  Genius  of  the  Future — to  define  the  field  of  its 
most  brilliant  triumphs  and  predict  its  distinctive  type  and  Spirit, 
we  should  inquire  towards  what  vast  themes  the  earth  is  moving 
what  dominant  Ideas  and  what  mighty  Passions  are  now  stirring  at 
its  heart,  the  destined  Lords  of  Future  History — what  interests 


38 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


seem  likely  to  attract  the  convergent  Attention  of  the  coming  Age, 
and  to  arouse  Emotion  that  shall  give  that  Attention  a living  inten- 
sity, and  burn  its  themes  into  the  soul  of  the  World.  In  taking 
that  horoscope  we  ask,  as  the  Constellations  of  the  Past  are  reced- 
ing, toward  what  new  lights  in  the  historic  firmament  we  are  be- 
ing borne,  and  what  new  orbs  are  looming  up  most  conspicuous  and 
effulgent  in  the  forward  distanee  ? And  lo ! we  see  unmistakea- 
bly,  Ideas  of  the  Aristocratic  and  Partial  and  Forceful  Eras  are 
sinking  from  the  ascendant : those  of  Universal  Humanity,  of  the 
Million  and  for  the  Million,  are  entering  the  House  of  Life.  The 
constellations  of  War  and  Hate  and  Fraud  and  Violence — the  rage 
of  Sirius  and  Orion’s  Sword,  Sagittarius,  “ Ophiucus  huge,” 

Leo  and  the  Bear,  treacherous  Scorpio  and  the  sideling  Crab,  too, 
we  trust,  we  leave  far  behind.  Toward  the  celestial  Hercules — 
the  Monster  queller — the  truthful  Scales,  the  meek  Pleiades  of 
sweet  influences,  and  fair  Astrea  Redux,  that  erst  from  the  iron- 
time fled  on  high,  and  the  sign  of  the  Blessed  Cross,  our  world  is  i 
moving  in  its  moral  Kosmos.  From  the  dim  outlying  Realms  border- 
ing on  Old  Night,  the  realms  of  shams  and  falsehood,  mighty  shadows 
and  dazzling  phantoms,  we  emerge  into  the  sunlight  of  the  Real ; 
into  the  glory  of  Truth  and  the  effulgence  of  a nearer  God. 

Around  the  great  Reality  of  Humanity — o’er-watched  by  Deity  j 
and  its  guardian  cherubim,  Liberty,  Truth  and  Love — the  Thought  j 

and  Feeling  of  the  Future  are  to  concentrate.  Here  are  to  con-  j 

verge  the  ruling  Ideas  and  Passions  of  the  New  Era — those  des- 
tined to  create  order,  shape  history  and  reform,  and  reconstruct  So-  ; 
ciety,  yea,  which  are  heaving  like  an  earthquake  at  the  heart  of 
the  Earth  this  hour.  Here,  then,  is  the  destined  theme  of  the  Emo- 
tion and  Attention  of  coming  Ages — and  here,  consequently,  the  ! 
field  for  future  Genius — for  its  loftiest  achievements  and  its  endu- 
ring fame.  Christianity,  grasping  in  its  idea  both  Humanity  and 
God,  and  wedding  them  together,  is  to  be  the  central  and  vital  el- 
ement, not  of  the  social  and  moral,  but  of  the  intellectual  order  that  ; 
earth  is  about  to  behold.  Around  Christian  Truth  and  Liberty 
and  the  Heroic  and  Beautiful  of  Love,  the  splendors  of  future  Ge-  j 
nius  are  to  culminate — and  their  culmination  to  be  that  of  all  time,  ; 


REV.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  39 

the  highest,  purest,  brightest,  and  the  immortal.  The  Literature 
of  the  Christian  Age  shall  be  the  ultimate  and  choice  flower  and 
fruitage  of  all  History.  Then  shall  there  be  heroes  in  thought  as 
in  act,  such  as  Time  never  saw  before.  The  Olympian  shall  sup- 
plant the  Titan,  Reason,  Force,  Truth, Falsehood,  and  Love,  Hate, 
in  Literature  as  in  Life  ; and  the  Song  and  Eloquence  and  Logic 
of  the  Hew- Jerusalem  shall  be  heard  breaking  through  the  sereen 
of  the  skies. 

Methinks  I see  Genius  thus  born  of  Mighty  Themes  that  are 
waking  and  converging  the  world’s  mind,  becoming  the  thunder- 
bearer  in  the  rule  of  Public  Reason  and  Love.  I see  it  flashing 
along  the  iron  nerves  of  continents,  intelligencing  from  land  to 
land  as  the  lightning  shineth  from  one  end  of  the  heavens  to  the 
other — a ubiquitous  power,  championing  universal  Humanity,  vin- 
dicating the  overborne  truth,  and  lifting  up  the  fallen  right  on  all 
the  battle-fields  of  Earth — writing  its  words  of  fear  over  the  revels 
of  guilty  Power,  and  striking  down  the  oppressor  in  his  city  of  for- 
tresses, and  in  the  secret  chambers  of  his  pride.  I see  it  quelling 
the  tyrannous  one,  breathing  over  his  mailed  myriads  like  the 
destroying  angel  of  God.  I see  it  subduing  the  despotic  Million, 
staying  their  rage  as  the  breath  of  the  Almighty  stilleth  the  tumult 
of  the  Seas.  I see  it,  inspired  from  no  Delian  Isle  or  Delphic  Cave, 
but  by  the  Eternal  Spirit,  grasping  the  vast  truths  of  Christianity 
and  Humanity,  and  working  them  into  the  latest  and  most  glorious 
Order  of  Time — the  Architecture  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 

Hail,  then,  the  Genius  of  the  Better  Era ! Hail  ye  mighty 
Themes  ! lifting  your  shining  peaks  like  the  Delectable  Mountains 
over  the  future  pilgrimage  of  Humanity,  giving  it  already  an  out- 
look into  Heaven  ! Hail  ye  Omnipotent  tractors  of  future  thought ! 
towards  which  already  moves  its  electric  cloud  of  Mind,  and  around 
which  already  interchange  flashes  commercing  between  this  and 
the  other  World.  Ye  shall  unite  again  the  Prophet  and  the  Poet, 
and  inaugurate  the  true  Priest  as  the  true  Philosopher,  and  link 
anew  Earth’s  Genius  to  the  Eternal  Throne  ! Fade  then  the  glories 
along  the  iEgean  wave  or  Delphian  Steep,  and  dumb  be  the  echoes 
along  Arno’s  and  even  Avon’s  stream,  still  I see  o’er  Zion’s  height 


t 


40  PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


and  Siloe’s  brook  the  seven-fold  noon  arise,  and  Genius  soaring  far 
“ above  the  Aonian -Mount,”  to  the  Eternal  Light-fountain.  I see 
Poesy  and  Philosophy  and  Oratory  with  sympathies  broad  as  uni- 
versal humanity,  with  the  sweetness  and  persuasion  and  strength 
and  beauty  inbreathed  by  the  all  quickening  Spirit,  building  a ladder 
between  earth  and  heaven,  along  which  the  angels  of  God  shall 
again  be  seen  ascending  and  descending  upon  the  children  of  men. 
I hear  them  pouring  forth  in  dialects  already  borrowed  from  the 
“ words  unutterable,”  the  latest  and  richest  utterance  of  Genius — 
a fitting  euthanasia  of  Humanity  as  it  is  translated  to  the  skies. 

To  these  high  themes,  then,  of  Christian  truth  and  beauty  and 
heroism  and  love,  the  coming  Age  beckons  the  aspiring  and  noble 
of  soul.  Habitually  and  meditatively  concentrate  thought  and  in- 
terest upon  these  themes,  till  they  become  living,  suggestive  and 
eloquent  in  the  soul.  So  shall  you  be  in  sympathy  with  Earth’s 
great  thought  this  hour.  So  shall  you  write  your  name  most  bene- 
ficently and  enduringly  on  the  pages  of  Time,  or  at  least,  so  shall 
you  write  it  forever  in  the  Book  of  Life. 

Connected  with  this  thought,  permit  me,  young  gentlemen,  to  al- 
lude, in  conclusion,  to  another  relation  of  my  subject : one  most  im- 
portant of  all,  yea,  of  infinite  solemnity.  In  the  conduct  and  direc- 
tion of  the  Attention  lie  moral  destinies  for  both  worlds.  We  grow 
like  that  we  look  on,  be  it  of  Heaven  or  Hell.  The  attention  is 
the  direction  of  the  soul — a direction  prophetic  and  determinative 
of  its  eternal  career — its  outbreak  and  movement  towards  the  ev- 
erlasting. The  mind  follows  its  intellectual  ray  projected  upon  the 
Universe,  be  it  toward  light  or  gloom.  If  Attention  is  Genius — 
its  direction  is  Destiny.  This  determines  whether  Genius  shall  be 
of  Glory  or  Shame — of  Heaven  or  Hell.  This  controls  our  moral 
sentiments,  and  is  the  key  to  our  moral  character.  Directed  to  a 
narrow  and  partial  circle  of  truths,  political,  philosophical  or  reli- 
gious, it  makes  the  bigot,  the  fanatic,  and  the  moral  or  social  luna- 
tic ; and  will  lead  man  to  imagine  that  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth 
were  of  old  fashioned  according  to  his  formularies.  Directed  to 
the  mere  letter  and  outworks  of  Christianity,  to  mere  visible  forms 
of  order,  creed  or  ceremonial,  it  dooms  the  mind  to  imprisonment 


REY.  MR.  POST’S  ADDRESS.  41 


of  its  reason  and  charity  within  these  ecclesiastic  munitions  as  a 
Bastile— degrades  and  enslaves  the  soul,  and  condemns  it  to  grind 
all  its  days  in  gloom  and  shame  and  fear  : Fixed  contrariwise,  on 
the  spirit  and  life  of  Christianity,  it  makes  a spiritual  freeman, 
god-like  expansiveness  of  intellect  and  souk 

Bear  it  in  mind,  then,  that  our  themes  of  steadfast  and  habitual 
thought  shape  and  doom  the  soul.  Turning  from  the  good  and  per- 
sistingly  gazing  on  the  evil,  the  mind  establishes  its  gravitation  to- 
ward eternal  Night.  The  bands  of  association  become  chains  of 
darkness  binding  to  the  gates  of  Hell.  Mighty  it  may  still  be,  but 
with  the  might  of  a fallen  Angel.  Oh,  there  are  minds — a vast  and 
gloomy  army  of  them — starlike  in  their  birth,  and  lit  up  of  God  to 
shine  forever  beside  His  throne  ; but  whose  intellectual  ray,  alas  ! j 
turned  ever  toward  the  outer  dark,  drew  them  down  forevermore. 
Comet-minds  there  are,  which,  like  those  wanderers  of  immensity, 
whichever  side  the  orb  of  light  they  turn,  project  their  ray  ev- 
er to  the  opposite  realm  of  night.  Drawn  though  they  be  within  the  I 
very  verge  of  Heaven,  still  turns  their  vision  ever  to  the  nether 
glooms ; and  hurrying  in  seeming  impatience  and  pain  through  their 
perihelion,  they  follow  their  projected  visual  ray  into  the  dark  and 
infinite  void.  The  face  of  Evil,  gazed  on,  throws  out  its  baleful  as- 
similative influence,  and  its  bands  of  deadly  fascination,  and  draws  I 
them  within  its  malignant  sphere  forever,  while  of  the  sons  of  j 

light  a different  destiny  follows  a different  mental  gaze.  They  j 

SHALL  BE  LIKE  GOD,  FOR  THEY  SHALL  SEE  HlM  AS  He  IS. 

Here,  then,  we  leave  our  theme.  Our  analysis,  if  correct,  leaves, 
for  the  most  part , intellectual  as  well  as  moral  destiny , in  solemn  \ 
commitment  to  the  human  will. 

Wouldest  thou  then  be  wise  and  strong  and  eloquent  ? yea — good, 
pure,  holy  ? Envy  not,  despair  not,  seek  not  what  thou  wishest  from 
far — it  is  nigh  thee — around  thee, — within  thee.  And  that  thou  : 
seekest,  thou  seekest  not  alone.  Mighty  agencies  co-operate. 

God  and  Nature  are  thine  allies.  Thou  art  called  upon,  not  to  j 
create,  but  only  to  see.  Open  thine  eyes  and  the  Highest  shall 
make  his  glory  to  pass  before  thee.  Open  thine  eye : Lo,  he  is 
there ! and  Beauty  and  Truth,  His  daughters.  The  angels  of 


42 


PHILOMATHESIAN  SOCIETY. 


thine  own  mind — the  wondrous  Laws  of  Association — shall  cause 
to  move  past  thee  the  Panorama  of  the  Real  and  Ideal  World — 
the  Series  and  Orders  of  Universal  Truth — yea,  shall  present  to 
thee  at  last,  the  central  and  ultimate  of  all  truths. 

Yea,  the  great  Father  of  Mind  shall  Himself  bring  to  thee — 
as  to  our  first  Parent  in  Eden — for  thy  contemplation  and  naming, 
the  vast  and  varied  types  of  Nature  and  Being,  and  shall  at  last 
present  unto  thee  the  glorious  Eva,  the  Mother  of  all  Beauty  and 
all  Life. 

Mightier — and  lovelier — shall  the  mind  progressively  rise  with 
its  ascending  scale  of  Themes,  until  at  last  it  shall  see  God. 


/ 


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